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Introduction to the WRRS Guide No. 1 Contents Page No. 1. Introduction 3 2. The Society Within Scotland 4 3. Game Allocations 4 4. Subscriptions 4 5. WRRS Management 5 6. Referee Coaching 5 7. Who’s the Ref 7 8. Other Websites 9 9. Training Events 9 10. Season 2013-14 Fixture Dates, Substitutes and Club 10 Colours Other Guides in this series: 2 WRRS Getting Started in Refereeing 3 WRRS Guide to Open Play 4 WRRS Guide to Set Kicks 5 WRRS Guide to the Scrum 6 WRRS Guide to the Lineout and Touch 7 WRRS Guide to Mauls and Rucks 8 WRRS Guide to Scoring Situations 9 WRRS Guide to Keeping Order Introduction to WRRS August 2013 2 1 Introduction Tom McNicol President WRRS [email protected] Tel: 07810 870227 Welcome to the West of Scotland Rugby Referees Society! This document is an introduction to the Society and how it supports its members. It is a guide designed primarily for new members, but can be used as a reference for all referees and other members. It explains how to get connected to the refereeing community. Refereeing can seem a solitary pastime, and it is essential for new referees to take full advantage of the support available from WRRS, through coaching, training, social events and guides such as this. Guide No. 2 explores the basic mechanics of how to go about preparing for games and what to do at the ground, as well as highlighting some of the things to concentrate on in your initial games as a referee, such as player safety and your basic positioning on the park. Further guides are available that deal with how to referee various aspects of the game. These give tips from our referee coaches that can be referred to between games as you build up your knowledge of the game and the art of refereeing. Each referee will have his or her own personality and style, but it is essential that we all understand how others might respond to particular situations, so that we can react quickly and correctly to events that take place on the pitch, sometimes for the first time in our experience. WRRS prides itself on the support it gives to its members, and its organisation of various events, including an annual conference at the beginning of each season, regular referee training sessions and several social events. You will be informed about these by email. I hope you can attend as many of these events as possible. You will already have met Andy Macpherson, our man at the SRU, but two other people who will contact you will be Jake Wilson, Vice President, who will make sure that your contact details are correct, and David Stark, Director of Referee Coaching, who will ensure that referee coaches are appointed to advise you at your first game and beyond. All WRRS officials are there to support you in your refereeing career, whether your aspirations are to referee local club rugby or you have ambitions to progress to the professional game. I wish you every success, and most of all enjoy yourself. Andy Macpherson As a new referee, once you have shown commitment by making Regional Referee Development yourself available to officiate at some Manager, Glasgow Region games, you will be issued with kit, which usually comprises two shirts, [email protected] shorts and socks. You will be asked to provide your sizes to Andy. He will Tel: 07764 772247 also supply you with a Law book. Jake Wilson David Stark Vice President, Events and Director of Referee Coaching Allocations [email protected] [email protected] Tel: 07711 777821 Tel: 07774 223146 Introduction to WRRS August 2013 3 2 The Society Within Scotland WRRS is one of six referees’ societies in four regions of Scotland, under the auspices of the Scottish Rugby Union www.scottishrugby.org . It organises referees within an area from Annan in the south-east, Stranraer in the south-west, up to the Glasgow area, and to the Isle of Mull in the north-west. It allocates referees generally for regional leagues, from 1st XV, 2nd XV and University down to Under-18 and school 1st XV games and, where possible, other games that are requested. Above this level of rugby, referees, assistant referees and touch judges are allocated by Scottish Rugby at Murrayfield. Referees’ societies are also responsible for the recruitment and development of referees in their area. 3 Game Allocations WRRS allocates referees to games according to their grade, generally as follows. Referee Level of Games Grade 5 National Reserve 1 6 West 1, National Reserve 2. 7 West 2, Schools 1st XV, Women’s Premier 1, University Division 1. 8 West 3, U18 Division 1, Women’s Premier 2, University Division 2. 9 West 4, Reserve West 1, U18 Division 2, University Division 3. 10 Reserve West 2, Reserve West 3A, Reserve West 3B, Women’s National 1. Games are usually allocated by Raymond Healy at the end of each month for the following month. Changes that happen during the month are dealt with by John McLaughlin from Monday morning until Friday late afternoon. Communication with either should be by email to [email protected], not their personal email addresses. This website is not manned from Friday afternoon to Monday, so do not expect a response then. From about 4.00pm on a Friday afternoon until 12.00 noon on a Saturday, an emergency phone service is available on 07749 030108, manned by Tom McNicol and Jake Wilson. If no one answers, text to this or leave a voice message to intimate any changes to fixtures or appointments. Do not assume that someone else will inform Allocations about a fixture changing or not taking place, and it is important that the Who’s the Ref (WTR) is kept accurate and up to date. Be careful to obtain club contact details for Wednesday and Sunday games. While someone may notice a last minute email on a Wednesday, there is no emergency cover for Sundays. If you find yourself unavailable after 12.00 noon on a Saturday for a Sunday game, perhaps due to injury, contact the club representative who will then have the task of finding another referee. See Section 7 for how to intimate availability and to accept appointments. During Season 2013-14, the SRU, rather than WRRS, allocates referees to Premiership, National and Championship 1st XV games, although we may have to contribute some of our higher grade referees from time to time, in addition to those formally on the SRU list. 4 Subscription You are required to pay an annual subscription to WRRS, £20 for season 2013-14, to cover the costs of running it and providing services to you. This is due at the beginning of September. Please send it to the Treasurer (John McLaughlin, 5 Maryville Avenue, Glasgow, G46 7NE). Introduction to WRRS August 2013 4 5 WRRS Management The WRRS Management Committee meets monthly throughout the season to deal with the affairs of the Society, such as referee and referee coach recruitment and development, issues with allocations, interface with the SRU and the Scottish Rugby Referees Association, the Society’s finances, referee abuse issues, exchanges of referees with other societies, TERTS and other meetings and events such as the AGM, which normally takes place in April. WRRS Office Bearers In addition to Tom McNicol (President, Allocations Group and Discipline), Jake Wilson and David Stark, the following are the office bearers for Season 2013-14, with their positions and sub-committee membership noted. Graeme Fisher Secretary and Discipline Raymond Healy John McLaughlin Allocations Treasurer and Allocations 5 Maryville Avenue Glasgow G46 7NE Jim McCabe Craig Clark Discipline Assistant Treasurer Finlay Clark Allan Wilson Assistant Coaching Allocations Lee Fish and Graham Filmer work with Jake on events. Andy Macpherson attends meetings. Ed Crozier and Martyn Hawthorn are ambassadors for WRRS and are invited to attend meetings to share their experience. 6 Referee Coaching The Society’s referee coaches are allocated to work with individual referees from time to time and offer advice on specific areas of the referee’s performance as presented that day. Our coaches have all qualified through the SRU referee coaching programme and, while they have varying levels of experience behind them, they are all entirely competent to give a referee food for thought. Several times during the season, the coaches meet to share and build on their own experience and to review the performances of their referees. In conjunction with Society executives, they also make recommendations regarding any appropriate change to a referee’s grade. They may also recommend some referees for further development through the national framework. Referee coaching is a process designed for the benefit of our referees and is not a judgement of those referees. When a referee coach works with you during a game, he will collect relevant data and then invite you to join in a short discussion / feedback session immediately afterwards. The discussion will be based on a comparison between your performance in certain aspects of our craft that day with the accepted norms for those aspects as Introduction to WRRS August 2013 5 expected by the Laws of the Game and the best practices laid down by the iRB and SRU. Later, he will write a Report on the game and on the points covered during the post-game session and post this on Who’s the Ref. You can access this and you are also expected to ‘click’ on the feedback icon that will allow you to comment on the quality and helpfulness of the coach and the Report.

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