Young referees
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00:00We're here down at Swansea University and working with some young academy referees and
00:13developing and honing their refereeing skills.
00:16Fortunately we've developed a relationship with the three Bucks universities in Cardiff,
00:20Cardiff Met and Swansea and we've got about nine referees who frequently come on a Monday
00:25evening down to these sessions just to train live line-outs, live scrums and live plays
00:32really just so they get a good feel of understanding positional awareness and what it feels and
00:37looks like to referee a scrum and a line-out.
00:39Generally people come into refereeing when their playing career has ended, that historically
00:44was probably people in their thirties.
00:46Now we're finding younger people taking up the whistle, we've got one young referee,
00:51Josh Seeley, who wasn't picked for the Doerr Shield this year under 16s and he's now transferred
00:56his arm at refereeing.
00:58Another one, Caron Sean, who's a former Bucks, Ospreys 18s, Ospreys 16s, played with Dav
01:04Jenkins at age grade, was playing with Nathan in the Premiership last year and unfortunately
01:08an injury debilitated his career and he's come over to the dark side.
01:12It's just trying to focus on those kind of players who may not make it through their
01:16playing ability or injury curtails their ability to play.
01:20At this moment in time, it's the best time to be a referee as a youngster because I think
01:26there's a clear pathway.
01:28I used to think there was just, you have to do level one, referee junior rugby and then
01:33level two, youth, and seconds rugby and level three and you have to work your way up.
01:38I didn't think there was a pathway of going to pro refereeing until you're in your thirties.
01:44At the minute, we're training with the Ben Briggs Spears, the Adam Jones, the Craig Evans
01:52at the minute in the Vale on Tuesdays and we see what their preparations are like, what
01:57they go through, what their fitness is like and it's nice to be in their company as well.
02:02As a flanker myself, I think it very much aids me as a referee.
02:06In breakdown, I know what the flankers want and what they want to do and it helps me have
02:11that understanding of what the players want from me and what they need from me to ref
02:15the game properly.
02:16I want to just take my opportunities as they come and see where it can end up for me.
02:21I'd obviously love to referee a World Cup, in a World Cup, that is my dream goal, but
02:26getting there takes a long journey and I have to put a lot of hard work in order to get there.
02:32I think by bringing a younger audience in, exposing them to the late end of the game,
02:38be it as an AR5, just observing what happens, bringing referees into our review sessions
02:43on a Tuesday with our professional referees and our semi-pro referees at the SRC, helps
02:49the referee have a better understanding of what the requirements are and the demands
02:53and needs of refereeing in the late end.
02:56Hopefully, through understanding the errors of others, they can learn themselves but also
03:00they can find their own way.
03:02These sessions on a Monday night are brilliant to develop and focus their attention on how
03:08to navigate around the field, because believe it or not, trying to position yourself as
03:10a referee is amongst the hardest things you can try and do.