Leinster Match Program – Article 5

This article appeared in the Connacht Match Program

It is hard to talk about the world of refereeing and rugby without mentioning the great shock of the passing of Anthony Foley. All our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and the wider Munster rugby community. Reading online about the great man just made him a great man, player and coach. I did read one interesting titbit of information in all the articles I read, that he was only penalised 6 times in his career. I can well believe it. A great rugby mind and passionate player. He will be missed sorely. Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam.

A warm welcome to today’s match officials, John Lacey and Andy Brace from Munster , Jonathon Peak of Ulster, and today’s match commissioner Tim Lowry. Our sympathies are passed to John Lacey on the passing of his former Shannon and Munster teammate.

Helen O’Reilly’s was recently  appointed  to officiate between New Zealand and Australia in women autumn series down under. Helen has continued to build on her reputation as a quality referee and we wish her the very best of luck. We would hope that this would encourage others, both women and men, to take up the whistle and follow in her footsteps. Well done Helen on a great game. We would also like to congratulate Munster’s Joy Neville on her selection to the World 7’s Series referees panel.

World Rugby has announced the match officials for the November internationals and we are delighted to see a number of Leinster referees included. Dudley Phillips will be AR2 for Italy v New Zealand on November 12th with Nigel Owens (WRU) in the middle, in Rome. Gary Conway will be AR2 on the same day for Romania v USA with Paul Williams (NZRU)  in the middle, in Bucharest. Gary Conway will also be AR2 for Romania v Canada a week later with Shuhei Kubo (JRFU) in the middle, in Bucharest and on November 25th he will be AR2 for Samoa v Canada with Luke Pearce (RFU)  in the middle in Grenoble.

Dudley Philips will be AR2 for France v New Zealand on November 26th in Paris with Wayne Barnes (RFU) in the middle. The following referees have been appointed to the Ireland games:

Ireland v Canada – Marius Van Der Westhuizen (SARU)
Ireland v New Zealand – Jaco Peyper (SARU)
Ireland v Australia – Jérôme Garcès (FFR)

We wish Dudley and Gary the very best of luck in their games. All appointments can be found on the World Rugby website. John Lacey will officiate at the Scotland v Australia game.

Finally, it is always important to check your equipment before heading out on the pitch to officiate. Cards, check, pencil, check, working whistle, check, or not. A Munster refereeing colleague in the European Champions Cup gave fans and players something to remember, after trying to officiate a game of rugby with a broken whistle. Commentators were perplexed as to what was going on, as Andrew Brace seemingly allowed play to continue between Wasps and Zebre after foul play occurred at the break down. (Well spotted btw).

On closer inspection however Andy’s whistle was in fact broken, with the referee blowing his lungs out into a hollow piece of metal. “They haven’t heard it but the referee keeps going at his whistle,” chuckled the commentators. “We don’t see this too often do we?” the pair continued.

All was resolved when a replacement whistle was bought on to the field, leaving Brace being applauded by some very amused fans and players.
We hope your whistle is working today John Lacey, if it breaks,  best not ask Andy for his.