Happy New Year Friday !

Welcome back, we hope you all had a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year, and are well-rested, fit (!) and raring to go for the second half of the season!

You’re never too old!

Society Vice-President John Kelly was one of our most active referees in the first half of the season, covering 35 games for the society, just a little bit less than half his age! Click here to read some of his thoughts about current refereeing, which are especially relevant to all new and young referees

Law clarification

World Rugby have clarified a grey area of the ruck law, relating to bound players coming around the side of the ruck and therefore giving them a quicker opportunity to disrupt the ball before it’s played away. Click here to read the clarification

Club Cards (also known as feedback cards)

Only 40 of our active referees submitted feedback cards from the first half of the season. Completing these is extremely worthwhile for a number of reasons, including

• They stimulate post-match conversations about performance with the teams and/or coaches
• They give individual referees good pointers for work-ons
• They give the Society a good picture overall of clubs’ opinions of referee standards, and help us to identify training needs
• They demonstrate to clubs that the Society values their opinions

Please therefore try and take time to get these cards completed after your matches. Copies of the card can be ordered from johnholland@talktalk.net or downloaded from the website here

Meet the ref

Another of our most senior members, and the ‘disciplinary guru’, Dave Thomas (‘DLT’) shares some rugby memories here

And finally…

A good news rugby story to end, see below