The Sunday rugby season is very much underway and our club referees have been busy supporting our age grade and senior sides in both pre-season and league games. I’m really pleased to say that every home game from Under 13s up, save for one that had a last minute time change, has had a qualified referee in the middle. This started in August with Tilly’s 10s and has included two senior games officiated by Darryl Brooks and Luke Hammond with Darryl Guy and Paul Eynon patrolling the touchlines as Assistant Referees (touch judges in the old days) with radio comms to really make for an exciting experience for all.
In addition to this Darryl Guy, Matt Selway, Luke Hammond and Dan Ricketts have provided their expertise for Sunday morning age grade games and coaches and players have been really appreciative of their work. We also now have a feedback system and this has highlighted that having a coach alongside the players for any pre-match briefing would be useful to help players with asking questions and checking things with the referee – thanks to the U14s coaches for this idea!
We’ve also been able to offer some in-game coaching and development to referees and this will develop further as Matt Todd (aka Jabba) brings his wealth of National Panel and RFU Tutor experience to support the ref squad and even get in the middle for some games. Also thanks to the sides who are able to provide Veo cam footage as this really helps referees to analyse as much as it does players! If you take any photos of our referees in action, home or away, please send them to referees@harlowrugby.club.
Most excitingly, several club members including one of our age grade youth players, have recently attended the first part of their England Rugby Refereeing Award and are raring to go with refereeing their first games. The club calendar is looking busy and we’ll also be hosting the finals of the West Essex schools’ rugby competitions in November and December so there are plenty of opportunities to take up the whistle!
The future of the egg chasing whistlers at Harlow Rugby Club is looking bright! Jouez!
Dan Ricketts
HRUFC Referee Co-ordinator
