Issue 15
In this month’s edition, we take an opportunity to reflect on some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to develop our referees. Also, some exciting news on our Asia Rugby Panel and Kelvin Yap reports on his experience at the recent Bangkok 10s. Read on for more info…
Latest addition to Asia Rugby Referee Panel
Congratulations to Leow Wei Liang on being approved to join the Asia Rugby Referee Panel. Leow, who was recently promoted to our Performance Panel is the latest of our younger referees to be selected to officiate in International appointments around Asia. Congratulations also to Darroch Chua who was promoted from the C Panel to the B Panel in the annual review. In addition to our on-field referees, Paul McKay and Azhar Yusof were added to the Television Match Official (TMO) panel. The Society can now boast having 10 members on the various Asia Rugby Panels. The full list of our Asia Panel referees can be found below.
Junior Referee Panel updates
You may recall in the November 2017 edition of the Society newsletter that the recently formed Junior Referee Panel had been involved as Assistant Referees at the Saints 7’s tournament. Since then, the Junior Panel has gone from strength to strength with a number of our Junior Referees being involved in the JRCS U10 and U11 competition as both referees and assistant referees. So how does the Society support the development of these young referees?
In the same way that teams meet regularly to train, the Society runs weekly training sessions for all referees at Saint Andrews Secondary School on Monday evenings. At these sessions, referees have the opportunity to discuss any issues they’ve had in recent games in addition to an opportunity to practice their officiating in a nurturing environment. These sessions have added great value in helping to improve our referees in both their knowledge of the laws and their ability to manage players during the game.
The best support that a referee can be given is direct feedback after a game. At the beginning of the season, SRU ran a Level 1 Coach of Match Officials (CMO) course to increase our number of active referee coaches. These CMOs have been involved in working with our Junior Referees at their games. A massive thank you to those CMOs in particular who have regularly attended the JRCS games this season.
Lastly, none of this could be possible without a competition that recognises the need to allow referees to develop and improve through games. A particular thanks to the JRCS committee, who have been extremely supportive of the Junior Referee programme, in ensuring that coaches and spectators show respect to the referees.
Bangkok 10’s review by Kelvin Yap
Both Nick Dance and I were fortunate to be selected to be part of the refereeing team for the Bangkok International 10s (BIT), which took place in Bangkok Patana School from 24 to 25 Feb 18. We were both part of an international panel, which included referees from Thailand, Hong Kong, England and Japan.
Having made our short flights from Singapore to Bangkok, we attended the pre-tournament meeting, with Mr Michael Patz from RFU running a session to provide some key pointers when refereeing 10s.
The tournament consisted of youth, men’s, women’s and vets tournaments, which meant that there were around 300 matches for the panel to undertake, and that we would be expected to officiate different levels of rugby during the weekend. With a warmer and drier weather in Bangkok, our bodies were also pushed to the limit when officiating the fast-paced teams taking part in the BIT. However, the more experienced referees on the panel were on-hand to provide tip and advice on how to survive the heat, as well as improving our management of the game.
The hard work throughout the weekend paid off, as I was appointed to referee the Men’s Shield Final, as well as the Vet’s Tankard Final.
Overall, we had a fulfilling and eye-opening weekend in Bangkok. To be able to referee fast-paced games and learn from some of the best in the region allowed us both to grow as referees, hopefully so that we can contribute even more in the future.
And in other news…
Congratulations to the referees who have been appointed for overseas appointments in March and April.
24-25 March- Manila 10s: Tony Faneco, Leow Wei Liang & Sufian Ahmad
4-6 April- Hong Kong 10s: Charlie Brown
