Issue 17
As the curtain draws on another HSBC Sevens World Series here in Singapore, we can reflect on the various events that took place during our “Super Week” both on and off the field. Read on for more information…
SSRUR members once again impress at the HSBC World Series Sevens.
The Society once again were tasked with providing the on-field Assistant Referees (ARs), Ingoal Judges (IG) and Technical Zone (TZ) officials for the biggest sevens event in the world. The growth of the society in the past year gave quite a lot of new faces the opportunity to prove that they had what it takes to be involved in High Performance rugby. We once again welcomed our overseas representatives from Japan and U.A.E. to compliment an AR/IG team that had 5 members taking part in their first tournament. World Rugby Referee Manager, Paddy O’Brien commented on the level of professionalism on display from the local officials so congratulations to the team on a job well done.
A similar story in the TZ squad with a number of those working on the sidelines getting their first taste of International Sevens Rugby. The Technical Zone tends to be an emotionally charged area and the team demonstrated a great deal of composure whilst on duty. New recruit to the Society, Cindy Roberts demonstrated a particular strength in her management of some prickly characters.
Special mentions to SSRUR members Paul McKay and Khairul Hilmi, who along with Asia Rugby Performance Reviewer, Greg Hinton managed all the Assistant Referees for the weekend. The Junior Referee Panel also were involved in the action, with Dom Westbury, Ben McWilliam, Ben Russell and William Lewis acting as hydro technicians over the weekend.
A massive thank you to all of those who were involved, not only in the main tournament, but also to those who officiated in the fringe events that took place around the city over the weekend.
singapore rugby leading the way in training and education in Asia
In the lead up to the HSBC Sevens World Series, Singapore Rugby hosted a number of workshops and World Rugby courses with a view to improving the standard of rugby across Asia.
Participants from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Guam and India took part in the Regional Sevens Referee and Coach of Match Officials (CMO) workshop. During the camp, led by World Rugby Educators, Greg Hinton and Andrew Cole, the attendees were given an insight into how to reach the standard expected to officiate at Asia Rugby’s top level. The participants were also fortunate enough to have World Rugby Sevens High Performance Coach, Craig Joubert deliver a presentation on the expectations of a high performance referee on the Sevens World Series Circuit.
In addition to the training workshop, SRU also held World Rugby Citing Commissioner and Match Commissioner courses, in which participants were able to demonstrate their learning at one of the major sevens tournaments in the world. Both of these courses were led by World Rugby Educators, Gene Tong and Steve Hinds who both have considerable years of experience at the top level of the game.
In total, over 40 participants from 15 different Unions and Referee Societies took part in what proved to be a highly valuable learning experience. Singapore Rugby has once again proved to be at the forefront of training and education in Asia.
Singapore Rugby would like to show their appreciation to both World Rugby and Asia Rugby for co-funding the “Super Week”. A thank you also to the Educators who helped to facilitate the various events in the city, and the organising committee within SSRUR who worked tirelessly in the lead up to and during the events. Lastly, many thanks to our partners around Asia for their ongoing support of these programmes.
overseas appointments coming up
Jakarta 10s- Paul McKay, George Danapal, Douglas Danapal, James Brooke, Marc Singleton, Jean Luc Joel, Rupert Bray, Low Fenghua
Asia Rugby Division 3- Abdul Hannan
Asia Rugby Division 2- Charlie Brown, Chris Galea (CMO)
Keith Robinson leaving singapore
Leaving the best to last for this month’s issue. We received the sad news that long term SSRUR member, Keith Robinson will be leaving Singapore in the coming month to return to the U.K. Keith has spent a considerable length of time in Singapore and many of the rugby playing community will fondly remember him as a referee. Off the field, Keith has been a huge asset to the society and was a pioneer in modernizing the appointments system that is used to ensure that the huge number of games in Singapore are provided with referees. More recently, Keith has recently been the main performance reviewer for the top level referee panel in the country and of course as an Assistant Referee at all three of the Sevens World Series tournaments in Singapore.
Keith will be greatly missed in Singapore. We wish him the very best of luck for the future and hope that he continues to stay involved in rugby in the U.K.
