Leinster Match Program – Article 12

A very warm welcome to todays Match Official Jerome Garces and his team. Jerome is one of our favorite referees in the Leinster Rugby Referees and it is always a pleasure to see him back. He made his first full international appearance in 2010, after refereeing the 2009 Junior World Championship in Japan. During the 2014 Autumn Internationals Jerome took charge of the Cook Cup match between Australia and England at Twickenham. Jerome won notable praise from both coaches due to the high level of fitness he showed in the match.

He was also touch judge in the annual Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England during the 2011 Six Nations. In the 58th minute he became match referee, after the original referee, Romain Poite, was injured during play.

In April 2011, Jerome was named as an assistant referee for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

In 2015 he refereed Japan’s famous victory over South Africa at Brighton’s Amex Stadium during that year’s World Cup tournament. He later refereed is first world cup semi-final when he took charge of the New Zealand vs South Africa game. Many here feel he should have been given the final. Next time…..

What a few weeks

Firstly we had two big finals over the last 2 weeks, the delayed Senior Challenge Cup Final played at the RDS and the Junior Cup Final played at Energia Park. Well done to our extensive referee teams.

Congratulations to our team of three Nigel Correll (Referee), Helen O’Reilly (Sub Referee) and Marcus Casey (Touch Judge) who were appointed to officiate at the SCT Bank of Ireland Cup Final between Belvedere College SCT v Blackrock SCT

We of course acknowledge the remainder of the Team, namely Padraig Reidy 4th Official and Ross Hanan 5th, Tom Touhy Assessor and Kevin Beggs Television Match Official.

Further congratulations goes to Cillian Hogan on been appointed to referee the JCT Bank of Ireland Cup Final and his team of Tim Townend (Sub Ref), Susan Carty (TJ), Jonathan Hollywood (No.4) and Tom Colton (No.5), the first team of officials at Energia Park.

Annual Dinner

Our Dinner as one of the main highlights of our year.  It is a celebration of  the 2017/18 season that, so far at least, has been highly successful for the ARLB.  That success is entirely due to our referees efforts, both on and off the pitch.  The Dinner is also where we get to meet up with the other members of OUR club and renew friendships that  are otherwise not easy to maintain.  We will also honour 3 deserving members of our Association with Awards.

This year, the Dinner, hosted by President Conor Byrne, will take place on Saturday 24th March, in Lansdowne FC.  (this article was written prior to the dinner) Amongst others, we will be joined by the President of the IRFU Philip Orr.  Eoghan O Neachtain probably best known to you as a rugby analyst with TG 4 over many years and who has the added distinction of serving as Press Secretary to three different Taoisigh and Governments will reply to the toast on behalf of the guest!.

On the night our annual awards are handed out. There are four main awards, one for lifetime achievement – the Ham Lambert Award (2016/17 Norman Camier 2015/16 Brendan Jenkinson  2014/15 Tony De Lacy), one for referee of the year – the Harold Ardill Award (2016/17 Clive Wardrop, 2015/16 Brendan Conroy 2014/15 Paddy Curran), one for Referee Performance of the Year – the Alain Rolland Award which was introduced last year (2016/17 Susan Carty, 2015/16 Dermot Blake 2014/15 Helen O’Reilly ) and one for club of the year – the Terry Doyle Memorial Award (2016/17 Greystones RFC 2015/16 Terenure College2014/15 St Mary’s College RFC,).

All winners will be announced in our next issue!!!

We also look forward to seeing all our members at our upcoming AGM. Our Annual General Meeting of the ARLB will be held at Old Wesley RFC (by kind permission) at 7:30 pm, on Thursday the 26^th April, 2018. Following on from that we have our Annual Golf Outing, so much to look forward to.

Do you think you have you got what it takes to be a referee? The Leinster Referees always need more referees and opting to become one may be the best decision you’ve made for a long time. Feel free to make contact with the Leinster Rugby Referees at denis.collins@leinsterrugby.ie or contact by phone Denis Collins at 01-2235107 or David O’Brien at david.obrien@irfu.ie

If you are interested in becoming a referee get in contact with us through our facebook page, our website www.arlb.ie or through twitter @leinsterreferee.