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
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. WTR also allows you to record your own assessment of how you performed. It can be useful to compare your perception of your progress with that of your coach.
Referee Coaches 2013-14
Committee members Finlay Clark, Graeme Fisher, John McLaughlin, David Stark and Jake Wilson, and RRDM Andy Macpherson, are referee coaches – see above for photographs. Andy, Finlay and Tony are also SRU referee coaches. The other referee coaches are:
Alistair Barclay Jim Johnstone PHOTO awaited
George Barr Keith Jones PHOTO awaited
Jim Bulloch Tony Kozlowski
David Brown John McIntyre PHOTO awaited
Iain Calder David Mathias PHOTO awaited
John Gilmour Ken Roxburgh
Jonny Johnson
Martyn Hawthorn is responsible for the development of society referee coaches in Scotland and is assisted by John McLauchlin in a QA role in WRRS.
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 6 7 Who’s The Ref
WTR contains a wealth of information about all those involved in WRRS activities, game allocations, and game reporting. While the database covers all of Scottish rugby, individual referees can only gain access to those sections of it that they are authorised to see or respond to when accepting an assignment or recording a score.
WTR is subject to development from time to time. Those allocating games (Raymond Healy and John McLaughlin [email protected]) use the system a lot and tend to be the ones to whom queries are addressed. However, please ensure that you have consulted this guide and the HELP! Section of WTR in the first instance as they are busy people.
Logging In
When new to WTR, go to www.whostheref.com/db_admin . Select RUGBY – SCO from the drop down menu and log in. Enter your email address and click “reset password”. You will then receive an email telling you how to do this.
The menu contains the following sections.
Home Page
This contains little information.
Help!
This provides a link to some documents which explain areas of WTR, for example, filling out expenses forms.
Contacts
This provides contact details of individual people. There are various ways you can find contacts.
• Contact name – you need to know the correct spelling of a person’s name as the system is not sophisticated enough to recognise approximations. • Address – you can call up a list of officials who live in a particular town. • Roles – there are many roles in the menu, but the ones most of us will be interested in are Referees, Referee Coaches, Appointers and Club Referee Contacts. • Type, Grade and Gender – these sections are probably not relevant for referees.
You can use this to get into and change your own contact information. When you are new to WTR, ensure that your personal information is correct and complete. Please insert a photograph of yourself, so that people allocating games and carrying out referee coaching activities can easily recognise you when they meet you.
Contact Availability
The allocation team will try to allocate games a month in advance, so it is very important that you indicate when you are unavailable before the last week of the previous month. While we recognise that call-offs thereafter are sometimes inevitable, they are very frustrating if unavailability could have been foreseen.
Once you have gone to Contact Availability, select the relevant month. Having done so, to change the status of availability, click on the notepad icon in the Action column (not the magnifying glass icon). Then click on the relevant day, either on the tick to make yourself unavailable, or on the empty box to make yourself available. Default is the whole day, but it is possible to make yourself available for only part of the day. Once you have made the relevant changes, click the save icon (a green tick on a floppy disc).
While the calendar covers all days, it is most important to record on which Saturdays you are unavailable, as games for other days will usually be organised by John McLaughlin using email requests for volunteers, before they are confirmed on WTR.
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 7 The system also allows you to have different Roles. For example, you may be qualified to be both a referee and a referee coach, and may wish to make yourself available for one and not the other by making notes.
Fixtures / Scores
You can find the game you are interested in by going to the Date, Team, Competition or Month options. The Status (active, postponed, cancelled and abandoned) is only of interest to allocators, as is the Level of Game option. Then click Find.
Once you have found the game, as a referee you can insert a score, or click on the yellow or red card icons to fill out the relevant report. In each case, there is the possibility of saving the report and coming back to it, or declaring it as the final version and saving it for Murrayfield to review. The referee coach, where allocated, will find his report form and fill it in as well, and you then have the opportunity to provide feedback on the coaching. There is a link to any of the underlined items or names to obtain contact details.
Appointments
This is a quick route to gain access to your fixtures, past and present in the current season. You can also see your coaching reports for relevant games.
Events
This lists WRRS events and others which may interest you.
Clubs
While you can gain access to club contacts via the Contacts menu, this section gives additional club information (if the club has completed it), such as contact details, web site, club colours and team fixtures.
Teams
Where there is more than one team at each club, this gives the team contact details.
Expenses
You will be reimbursed for your expenses involved in travelling to games. Once you click on this section, there will be an automatic record of places you have visited since you last claimed expenses, along with miles calculated from your post code to the post code of the ground you are visiting. This will allow you to claim for mileage if you have travelled by car. There are other cells in the table to claim for other expenses, such as train or bus fares. If the mileage is not displayed in the table of the previous month’s fixtures, or if you think it is wrong, click on the date of the fixture and the mileage can be inserted or altered. Click on the save icon and return to Expenses.
If you have problems with your expenses, and the HELP! Section cannot resolve them, please email [email protected] .
Documents
This is a general repository of documents which all societies in Scotland use. It contains iRB Rulings on Laws, SRU Guidelines, Referee Abuse Forms and various other guidelines. Each season, the SRU produces a document Guidelines for Refereeing Domestic Rugby where they highlight particular areas for referees to be aware of. This should be consulted in addition to the WRRS guides.
Reports
This is a shortcut to all red card, yellow card and Coaching Report forms in your name for the current season.
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 8 Confirming Acceptance of Games
Once you have been allocated a game, WTR sends you an email. You then click either ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ in reply. It is essential that you do this so that the home club knows that you have been appointed. A confirmation then appears by email. If a game is subsequently cancelled or postponed, please contact 07749 030108 or [email protected] as the home club sometimes forgets to do so.
8 Other Websites
The web sites below contain information that may be of interest. While social media can be interesting, beware of opinions and law interpretations that are expressed in forums on unofficial sites. Our arbiter is the SRU, with queries directed via our RRDM.
(domain name still to be confirmed)
This website is currently being built for WRRS members and gives current information and news about the Society. It will replace the Pitchero site we used last season.
www.scottishrugby.org/
This is the Scottish Rugby Union site. While it may be of general interest, the sections on Fixtures & Results and Clubs & Schools are most relevant to our refereeing. The former records the results of games in leagues we referee and the latter 1st XV fixtures for the coming season. The latter also explains the approach to reserve team rugby for Season 2013-14 due to the large number of 2nd XV games which were cancelled last season. There is also a pdf containing age grade law variations.
www.irblaws.com/EN
You can test your knowledge of the laws of the game on this site by taking an on-line law exam. The International Rugby Board also has a Ready for Rugby guide and questionnaire which is designed to prepare officials in the basics of the game.
www.therefzone.co.uk
This England-based site appears to be approved by the iRB. It contains information, clips of game incidents and chat lines on various aspects of the game relating to refereeing.
9 Training Events
All referees, assistant referees and officials in WRRS are encouraged to attend training events. Andy Macpherson sends out emails intimating evening events throughout the season and a full schedule is contained on the Society website (currently under construction at August 2013).
Pre-season and early season training sessions take place at Cartha Queens Park RFC, 92 Dumbreck Road, G41 4SN at 7.00pm.
Most evening events start with a talk or discussion about different aspects of the game. Many of these talks are from guest speakers with a particular expertise. There is a chance to meet other referees and referee coaches, and discuss particular events from the previous Saturday that you are unsure about.
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 9
10 Season 2013-14 Fixture Dates, Substitutes and Club Colours
H = Home Scotland match on a Saturday A = Away Scotland match on a Saturday
Teams may choose to play their games on a Sunday if there is a Saturday international, and if they play on the same day as an international match, they must start their game at least 2 hours before that match. The only game Scotland has on a Sunday is away to Ireland on 2nd February. The times of the international matches (some may be provisional) are 9th Nov Japan 14.30, 16th Nov South Africa 15.00, 23rd Nov Australia 18.00, 8th Feb England 17.00, 22nd Feb Italy (away) 15.30, 8th March France 17.00, 15th March Wales (away) 14.45. 10 17 24 31/08 07 14/ 21 28 05 12 19 26 02 09 16 23 30/11 07 14 21 28 /08 /08 /08 /09 /09 /09 /10 /10 /10 /10 /11 /11 /11 /11 /12 /12 /12 /12 Date> 09
Pre-season friendlies West Division 1 West Division 2 Shield (West Division 1 & 2 teams) West Division 3 West Division 4 Bowl (West Division 3 & 4 teams) International Matches H H H 04 11 18 25 01 08 15 22 01 08 15 22 29 05 12 19 26 03 10 17 24 /01 /01 /01 /01 /02 /02 /02 /02 /03 /03 /03 /03 /03 /04 /04 /04 /04 /05 /05 /05 /05 Date>
West Division 1 West Division 2 Shield (West Division 1 & 2 teams) West Division 3 West Division 4 Bowl (West Division 3 & 4 teams) International Matches and Easter H A H A E
Male League / Competition Replacements West Division 1 and Shield at the regional stage Not more than 4 West Divisions 2, 3 and 4 and Bowl Not more than 7 Reserve National Leagues Not more than 7 Other reserve leagues Not more than 7 Shield at the national stage Not more than 7 Women’s Premier, National, National 2 Not more than 5 Women’s Development and Cup Not more than 7
The following clubs are in the WRRS region. The leagues in which the 1st XVs play in Season 2013-14 are shown in italics.
Club Shirt Shorts Socks
Allan Glens Dark blue, light blue and red hoops Blue As shirt West League Division 1 Annan Amber and black Black Black West League Division 1 Ardrossan Academicals Blue, black and silver Blue Blue Championship Division A Ayr Pink and black Black Pink and black Premiership Biggar Black and red Black and Black National League red Birkmyre Red Blue Red and white hoops West League Division 3 Bishopton Black, green and gold Black As shirt West League Division 4
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 10 Club Shirt Shorts Socks
Cambuslang Green with claret and amber hoops White Green West League Division 2 Carrick Blue and black Black Blue West League Division 2 Cartha Queens Park Green, black and amber Black As shirt Championship Division A Clydebank Red with black sleeves and sides Black Red with white tops West League Division 2 Clydesdale Black, red and white hoops Black Red West League Division 4 Cowal Maroon and white hoops White Maroon West League Division 4 Cumbernauld Black Black Black West League Division 2 Cumnock Black and red Black Black and red West League Division 3 Dalziel Black, blue and white Black Blue Championship Division A Dumfries Saints Black and white hoops Black Black, red and white Championship Division A East Kilbride Black and gold Black Black with gold tops West League Division 1 Garnock Green, black and gold As shirt Black and gold West League Division 2 GHA Green White Red National League GHK Navy blue, green and white Navy blue Green and white West League Division 1 Glasgow Academicals Navy blue and white hoops Navy blue Navy blue with white West League Division 1 tops Glasgow Caledonian Navy and light blue Navy blue As shirt University Glasgow East Black with red and blue flashes; Alt. white West League Division 4 with red and blue flashes Glasgow Hawks Red and black Black Black Premiership Glasgow University Black with gold trim Black Black
Greenock Wanderers Red, yellow and black hoops Black Black with green Championship Division A tops Hamilton Royal blue and jade green hoops; Alt. Black Black Championship Division A white with royal blue & green flashes Helensburgh Green and gold Black Green and gold West League Division 1 Hillhead-Jordanhill Red, blue, green and yellow quartered Blue Blue National League Hyndland Navy, Green and Yellow hoops Navy blue Hoops as jersey West League Division 4 Irvine Maroon White Blue West League Division 1 Isle of Arran Red, black and white Black Black and red West League Division 3 Isle of Mull Black with red side Black Black and red West League Division 3 Kilmarnock Red with white stripe Navy blue Navy, red and white West League Division 1 Lanark Gold Navy blue Navy blue West League Division 3 Lenzie Red, yellow and blue Navy blue Red and blue West League Division 1 Loch Lomond Maroon and gold hoops Blue Maroon and gold West League Division 2
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 11 Club Shirt Shorts Socks
Marr Purple with green and gold trim Purple Green, purple and Championship Division A gold McLaren Black with yellow and orange hoops Black Black with yellow West League Division 2 tops Millbrae Pink and black Black Black with pink stripe West League Division 4 Moffat Blue and yellow stripes Blue West League Division 4 Newton Stewart Red Blue Red West League Division 1 Oban Lorne Red and green Black Red West League Division 2 Paisley Blue and red Blue Blue and red West League Division 3 Police Scotland (West) Black Black Black West League Division 4 Renfrew Black, amber and burgundy hoops Black Black West League Division 4 RN Scotland Command Blue and white Black Black
Scottish Agricultural Dark navy blue Red and White College Black Stewartry Black Black or blue Red West League Division 2 Strathaven Navy blue and gold Navy blue Gold West League Division 2 Strathclyde University Maroon and grey Navy blue Maroon and grey
Strathendrick Royal blue and white hoops Navy blue Red West League Division 2 Uddingston Sky blue and maroon hoops Maroon Maroon and blue West League Division 3 Waysiders Drumpellier Navy blue and gold As shirt Navy blue West League Division 2 West of Scotland Red and yellow stripes Red Red and yellow Championship Division A stripes Whitecraigs Blue and white Blue Blue Championship Division A Wigtownshire Royal blue Navy blue Royal blue with red West League Division 3 tops
Introduction to WRRS August 2013 12