Running in the Sunshine

I've reffed at the Rosslyn Park Schools 7s for several years and finally, this year, we've had some sevens weather, indeed its been more like Dubai than Roehampton. Its a great occasion, 20,000 students from home and abroad and the same could be said for the refs this year. The London Society brought across a number for development refs from Singapore, India and Hong Kong who were certainly surprised by the weather if not the quality of the food (burger and chips x 4 days is hardly the food of champions).

I am always amazed by the standards of some of the teams, especially as we get down to the play-offs and finals, many of these kids are already better than I ever was as a player. The event also proves to be a great social event for the refs, we rarely get to share the camaraderie that players enjoy as down in the lower orders we are usually travelling alone. Sharing down time between games for 4-5 days is a great opportunity for a joke or to get feed-back on your performance. There is always a good turn out of the usual characters to use up the allocation of beverage tokens at the end of the day. 

Whilst the good weather was welcome, it took its toll with hard grounds increasing injuries to players though it appeared to be cuts and grazes rather than the broken bones and dislocations we saw last year. The warmth seemed to help with muscle ache too, I seemed to be as fresh at 4pm as I was at 11am. This may be on account of my improved fitness, I certainly found that trying an ice bath each night helped in my recovery. 

I did suffer one misfortune, I only reffed one match on Wednesday after being knocked out 1 minute into my second game. A conversion was being kicked onto the field and I had signalled it was good and turned to write down the score when the ball hit me square on the back of the head. I found myself on the floor and mildly groggy the medics deemed me unfit to continue and I spent the rest of the day as a spectator. It was my first knock out on a rugby field and is a good example of why you should always keep your eyes on the ball!

What did I take away from the week, firstly my fitness is definitely improving, rarely did I feel I was struggling and also found myself being more efficient with my running lines as I read the game better and thought about where I needed to be. I found myself actively looking for an excuse not to blow and keeping it moving, those 50-50 forward passes where allowed to go in the interests of fast'n'flowing. I've received a few comments regarding poor use of advantage recently, I think this is a habit born of wanting to tidy up scrappy low level games. Now I'm getting better games there is less chance of the ball getting lost in scruffy rucks or foul play spilling over into a punch up. There are not many more games to develop this approach but I've started to adapt my style accordingly. 

Finally quote of the week came from one of the 16yo academy refs, "I think I'm allergic to Deep Heat, its made  my skin go red and hot!" Kids today!

LSRFUR video

A behind the scenes look on match day..

Olympic Rugby

Please sign the petition

http://www.olympic-rugby.org/

Two good reasons;

If we could get a sport that I want to watch at the London Olympics I wouldn't think it is quiet such a waste of Tax Payer's money
Secondly, it give the little countries like New Zealand a shot at a medal.

Schools Sevens

Last year at this competition, the day’s play was abandoned due to fear of drowning or concussion from falling branches. This year, whilst it was cool, I managed to catch some sun! Organisation seemed to be a bit better too, and there seemed to be a surfeit of referees so the schedule was far from punishing.
My first match was Ampleforth v Felsted, the team captains are due to arrive 10 mins before KO to check colours and call the toss, I give then 4-5 minutes and if one of them hasn’t shown I give the toss to the punctual captain. Felsted arrive very late and I tell him he has defaulted, the coach arrives a couple of minutes later and I explain that no, he hasn’t defaulted the match, just the toss!
This year I’m up a couple of age groups and the skill and speed are telling, three months off exercise aren’t good preparation for a day of refereeing 7’s. I get three games including a semi-final; I forget to check my watch as the first half of the SF draws to a close and a try is scored, oh well one more play I think, but this leads to a try in a tight game. Bad form, still it didn’t decide the game as the scorers ran away with things in the second half as they suss that giving the ball to the big fast lad is a good game plan.
Following this I run touch for couple of games, watching higher level referees closely was enlightening. A couple of issues, blue going in at the corner, and red tackles high, I flag it but the try stands, why no penalty try? It didn’t prevent a try being scored, had the player been prevent from going in closer to the post then maybe, but the tackle was made as the player was going to ground anyway. Secondly, red is tackled in midfield and the blue tackler bounces up quickly to play the ball, penalty given to red but the signal is not releasing the ball; confusion by me and the crowd on the touchline. It turns out it was the wrong signal, the blue tackler took down the red player and was trying to rip the ball. As both players hit the ground, the blue player never let go of the ball so the penalty was for not releasing (the player). Correct call but a fail on signals, which the ref admitted to back in the hut.
It was interesting to see sides using the ELVs to good effect particular quick throws, who would think you good make 7’s faster.
A worthwhile day out, and the ankle held up. Roll on Saturday.