Walking with Giants

As LondonRef moves up the grades he can claim something in common with the best refs in the world; refereeing my old side London Welsh Occies Vets. Wayne Barnes recently took charge of these fellas in a merit league match vs Ealing Vets on the playing fields of Richmond, dog-shit and all. Its a long way from the World Cup Final he is likely to take charge of next year (Safe money, England won’t be in it).

Chatting to my old muckers at the weekend they were clearly in awed by the experience; these players will only grudgingly acknowledge a  referee as being any good. To be truthfully at the level they have played in the past they would not be getting the best the game can offer. Like many Vets they contain players who have played at much high levels and been accorded referees as such. When you have seen what a National Panel referee can do and you now have a 40 year old never-going-to-be, you are going to be frustrated but that is the nature of the game.

The most fascinating aspect of their critique was the he only gave 4 penalties in the entire match. I think in my early encounters with LW Occies this was closer to 40. Have they suddenly got better, or did Wayne miss all that going off their feet and handling in rucks? I suspect it is neither. How did he handle the inevitable discussion about “didn’t you see that, every time sir?” 

Barnesy gave an excellent talk to the Ref Society last year which he outlines how he approaches refereeing games. Using his judgement of materiality he looks to see if blowing his whistle is fair and equitable and I guess, does it increase the enjoyment of the game for all those involved. Making sure this runs smoothly requires good communication skills either in pulling players back from the brink of committing an offence or letting them know you saw it and why you didn’t blow.

I’ve tried to use a lot from that talk to improve my game this season and by my reports it seems to be working. It is also important to consider who he was reffing, a Vets merit match requires a different touch to my student cups games or a Tri-nations decider in Ellis Park.

There are two ironic outcomes from this, the first is some of the same players have regularly hurled abuse in the bar for Mr Barnes reffing Wales like he reffed the Occies, hopefully they will be  more understanding next time. The second is that, despite dominating the early part of the match, London Welsh ran out of steam at the end of the match and lost. The game was one of the fastest and most open they can remember. So some things never change, it was the ref’s fault they lost the match!

London Welsh Trumoil

I haven't commented much on this one, but it is a sorry tell of alleged fraud, deception and poor due diligence. With the club back in the hands of the good and true its time to look to the future.

What is needed a coherent plan which must start with what level funding the club can raise and which level of the game that will get them. Previous planning seems to have been to aim for the top level or bust; well now they are bust. What next?

I don't think the club have leveraged the brand successfully in the past; this must be addressed. Though I think it has been moving in the right direction, there is an enormous amount of untapped potential. London Welsh has good facilities and a great location which are under utilized.

Once the potential value of franchise has been properly assessed then the club has the hard decision to make. Can it afford to play in GP (not a chance), the Championship (probably) or will it be lower down.

London Welsh have to access if the value of franchise is enhanced or reduced by the 'soft 'n' friendly' family club with a good social atmosphere and the need to centre activity at Old Deer Park? London Irish is a much bigger and successful club because of its move from Sunbury. Many current members (myself included) won't like this but it may be for the greater good. If the new management maintains the status quo then the club may have to accept a lower league is the best balance of ambition and resources.

The membership and owners needs to realise the club is neither a ‘community resource’ nor a business but must recognise the success will come from objective business management and engaging the broader stakeholder community.

Finally, the RFU needs to end the arms race in the lower leagues. Salaries in the lower leagues are clearly at a level that is unsustainable and are only justified in buying promotion to the top level. However, like the rest of the country, debt and living beyond ones resources is doomed to failure; Coventry, Birmingham, London Welsh and Manchester have all hit the skids this season. Simply, there is not enough money in the game to allow this to continue. The solution is either to pull up the draw bridge to the Premiership and allow funding and salaries to find its own level or if the RFU want to use the Championship as a development league then it needs to increase the funding available and impose a salary cap.

An Enormously Sad Day..

One of the greatest club names in British rugby bites the dust

London Welsh Administration

My home club and a little piece of Cymru in London. Things seemed to be going very well last season, our highest finish for many years and a place in the new British Cup competition. This would have been very lucrative with games against top Welsh, Irish and Scottish teams. This move is likely to see this position lost and Division 6 SE is a frightening prospect.
All the worse coming during a Lions tour, as the club still holds the record for the most starting Lions from a single club in 1971 to New Zealand.

London Welsh Occies

Well, it should have been my first week back in the saddle. Unfortunately, the team didn't confirm and no other matches to be reassigned. Instead I watched my old team in a Vets match. Good, old-fashion Exiles derby. A testament to the talents of the ref that it was the first I've witnessed with a punch up.

He struck me as particularly good for this level; excellent positioning, good whistle and signals, and the game flowed well. The two apparent Irish tries were disallowed because of a stray foot into touch in-goal and the off the ball shove gave Welsh a justified penalty try.
It turns out that last season, he was a level 3 national league ref and was coming back after a back problem and ankle operation (plenty of sympathy). It was clear he was used to better things and it showed in the quality of game he delivered. He even drew praise from the Welsh, very rare praise indeed.
Now lets hope its a similar score line on Saturday....!
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London Welsh Occies Vets vs Haslemere

I'm still laid up as I wait for my ankle to heal, so I thought I would pop along and watch my old team play.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to chat to the referee as his assessor was present so he disappeared early.

Enjoy

London Welsh Ladies Never Looked like this!

Rugby-Pioneers: Season V is open... let's play erotic rugby !

Even when I was dating one!

An then there was one

A confusing and ultimately disappointing weekend. I was supposed to have two games, a local Surrey League game on Saturday and a U15 game on Sunday. Firstly the Sunday match was changed to U13; younger and lower skills. Secondly my Saturday match was scratched, a second game was offered local to me, but before they could confirm I’m called for another league game. I’m finally called 2 hours before kick off to learn that this match is cancelled. It’s all too late to get another match, which is disappointing given the overall shortage of referees.

Still, I managed to get to watch my old side, London Welsh Occies, hammer London Scottish in the semi-final of the Middlesex Merit competition. There are some photos here;
London Welsh Occies
I had a good chat, post-match, with the Level 8 referee who managed the game, with some interesting pointers on how he interpreted foot-up in the scrum; not something that gets pinged very often.

Sunday in Richmond park with Rosslyn Park and Dorking youth was a one sided affair, with a superb performance from the Dorking fly-half. A star of the future, he popped up everywhere, taking two of the four tries and kicking three conversions. I had a good chat with the Park coach and it included the ELVs, our shared view was that collapsing mauls and hands in rucks my well work at the top of the game, but it is asking for trouble on a wet January afternoon with lower level teams.

You've been a very naughty boy

Chatting back

I thought I would share this exchange on my old Team's message board. They were unhappy with their ref at the weekend. I can't comment on his overall performance but I think here, he has made the right call.

Our whingeing wound him up and made him emotional (he had fear in his eyes) and decisions started to go against us. I particularly enjoyed the penalty he gave against us when Ga (correctly) called their line out not straight - "I was going to give you the scrum ...".

If you persistently chat back, commentate, question decisions then you run the risk of a penalty. Even if the throw wasn't straight and the ref was going to give it, telling him it wasn't straight is going to be seen by all refs as questioning his decision, which is a penalty. It won't happen the first time or possibility the second but it is going to happen eventually.


We had plenty of chats and he told me he was looking for an excuse to card Clem (because Clem was whingeing). His excuse came in the 38th minute when Clem hit the guy who had just headbutted him.


Now I would never comment as such to a player, but any player who consistently whinging at you as ref is not going to be your best friend. Its the same as above. "he's off-side,ref"," forward pass ref?" If the ref didn't blow, it wasn't, by asking those questions you're questioning his decision. Penalty.
Clem was using up his credit and when it comes to a 50-50 of card or not, there is nothing in the credit column. Headbutt or not, you are going to get a card for throwing a punch. Its straight forward retaliation, refs rarely see the first offence but its much more likely they will see the consequence.

Most refs are out to enjoy his afternoon too, do engage in banter but when it comes to the decision process. Keep your mouths shut!