REFEREE DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
ANNUAL REPORT FOR SEASON 2004 – 2005
Martyn Hawthorn

This is my second report to the GDRU AGM. I hope that the following report provides some useful information.

TRAINING

As you are aware all referees in Scotland have to be licensed. At the moment I have 1131 personnel on the database who have completed one course or another. July sees the end of the first three years of the license and many referees, especially Foundation and Level 1, will have to re-license. Letters will be going out in June inviting referees to renew their license. May I ask you to encourage your Club Referees to apply to get relicensed because ALL referees in Scotland have to have a license. With this report, is a list of Foundation Refereeing and Level 1 Refereeing Courses being offered in the Glasgow and District from August to December 2005. Additional courses can be arranged at your club provided that there are at least five participants. Please contact me if you are interested, so that we can arrange a mutually convenient date.

DEVELOPMENT

Weekly development sessions take place at the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies and the average attendance is 26. There is an hours theory session followed an hour in the gym doing a fitness session under the Society Fitness advisor. Fitness Tests are conducted 5 times a season. We also have a South West Referee Support Group Meeting that meet monthly at Stewartry RFC. Thanks must go to Stewartry RFC for the use of their facilities and kind hospitality.

As part of a referee’s development, we have an exchange programme. I would like to thank Clubs for their hospitality but especially when they have a referee from a different Society. There have been 22 referees (across the ability range) on the exchange programme this season. Exchanges have taken place with all the Scottish Societies plus Manchester, Hertfordshire, Durham, Somerset and South Africa. Referees have been in attendance at the Glasgow Rugby games acting as additional officials. This is to gain the experience of taking part in professional games. This experience has been invaluable and thanks must go to Glasgow Rugby for allowing this to take place.

Andrew MacPherson and Andrew Hepburn have had international appointments and David Wilkinson was appointed to an International University game. We have many young referees coming through on our Development programme: Paul Gossip, Andrew Healy, Graham Knox, Robert Mackinnon, David Walker, Christopher Draper and Neil Wood to name but a few. The Society has risen to the challenge thrown down by the Chairman, Bill Nolan a couple of years ago, with credit.

ALLOCATIONS

I must thank Raymond Healy for his excellent work as Allocations Secretary. Sadly due to a computer crash I can not provide any statistics for this year. However, I can report that the majority of matches were covered by officials. There were a few occasions when the home team and referee were ready to start and found out the visiting team were not going to turn up. Cooperation from Clubs is sought to ensure that referees are notified early if the game is called off. We can then re-appoint to another game. More referees have been available this year ensuring that referees are allocated at their correct level. I have had a lot of feedback on the performance of referees, some good and some bad. This is invaluable for the development of a referee and I thank you for sparing the time to contact me. Please continue to do so.

Next season allocations will be done by Assignbyweb. That means that the Clubs Referee Secretary or the person who contacts the referees, must have access to a computer. Details of how this will work will come from the West of Scotland Rugby Referees Society in due course. There will probably be a training session for those concerned which will be organised by the Society.

Thank you for your support during the season and if you require any information on the Laws or Refereeing matters please do not hesitate to contact me.

This article was originally posted on 25-May-2005, 13:54 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 25-May-2005, 13:55.