Presidents Address 2013-14

I am very honoured to be the first member of Wicklow RFC to be President at any level in Leinster Rugby and I look forward to continuing the qualities of ARLB that has made it the leading association within the IRFU.

I joined ARLB in the 93/84 season and I have refereed at Junior 1 level throughout Leinster and was part of an exchange programme involving the WRU for two seasons. To join ARLB was a natural progression for me when my playing career came to an end , as it was to become an assessor and administrator when retiring from refereeing .

Assessing is something which I enjoy greatly as it involves a close contact with the game through gaining an insight of the referee’s management of the game and to encourage the growth of his/her career.

I have been a member of the executive for the past 3 seasons and during that time new recruits / trial referee’s were my responsibility and with the help of initially David Keane and for the last 2 seasons Dave O Brien together with the area reps we have brought over 60 new referee’s into ARLB. This trend must continue in order to keep pace with retirement and the ever increasing requirement from the Leinster Branch to provide official referee’s to underage games .

If I could offer some advice to all new / trial referee’s , LOOK /LISTEN/LEARN ; watch experienced referee’s /listen to what they have to say/ and learn from it .
Over the last 4 years new committees and structures have been put in place , our association is in good hands and the future looks extremely exciting .
Finally may I wish you all restful summer break from refereeing and see you all at our annual seminar in August.

Pat Carolan
President Leinster Rugby Referess
2014-15