17 Oct Referees Corner – Issue 2 – Cell C Sharks – 2022/23

Welcome to another edition of referees corner. The season is in full swing with over 100 refereeing appointments being made for each weekend. This weekend also sees the start of the All Ireland League seeing many referees double up with Touch Judging duties. Our monthly education sessions will also focus on Touch Laws – Law 18

Today’s match referee is Craig Evans from Wales assisted by Peter Martin and Keane Davison with John Mason in the TMO box. Craig began refereeing on the World Rugby Sevens Series in 2016. He also refereed during the 2020 Olympics. He made his URC / Pro 14 refereeing debut in 2018,and was awarded his first Six Nations Championship match for the match between Italy and Ireland in the 2021 Six Nations Championship. He was appointed to the Tier One select group of referees in June 2021. We wish the team well today in what should be an entertaining game.

Our new recruits did their induction workshop, facilitated by Sean Gallagher in August and we were delighted to see over 40 new referees attend the course. These referees will be sent out to referee youth games to get match experience over the coming weeks and months.  Our trainee refs will also receive  mentoring over a number of weeks and will then do their assessment game. If they pass the assessment they are then put forward to become full members of Leinster Rugby Referees. One notable thing this season is the amount of female officials that are coming through our ranks in Leinster and the large amount of women taking up the whistle around Ireland. In Leinster we have been fortunate to have some excellent referees go through our ranks and it is great to see more get involved in our beginners courses.

In last week’s edition I mentioned that the Global Law trials were adopted into law. Here is the full and comprehensive list of those.

Hookers will be required to have one foot forward as the scrum sets up (19.10c),which acts as a brake on the scrum until the call of ‘Set’ in the engagement sequence (19.12)

Law 8 – Charging a Conversion – Chargers must not do so until the kicker moves in any direction to begin their approach to kick.

Law 9.11 – Dangerous Play – Jumping into or over the tackle explicitly added.

Law 9 – Dangerous Play – Flying wedge GLT adopted into law – One latcher permitted pre contact – must comply with arriving player laws.

Law 9 – Dangerous Play – Protect the jackler – may be levered away but not dangerously.

Law 12 – Goal Line Drop Out – Adopted fully into law. Ball ‘played’ into in goal added to kicked.

Law 15 – Ruck – Diving/falling on ball near to ruck (1m) as it emerges is a PK.

Law 16 – Maul – Formation – Ripper must be bound to ball carrier.

Law 16 – Maul – Ball carrier cannot slide or move backwards – ball must be transferred backwards.

Law 13.3 – In Goal – Player on ground may play the ball to ground it for try or touchdown.

Law 18.8 – 50:22 adopted fully into Law.

Law 18 – Lineout – Ball prevented from traveling 5m is a free kick.

More information on these can be found in the World Rugby Laws site. ​​https://www.world.rugby/the-game/laws/home Think you know them all? Why not test yourself. The World Rugby Laws exam is available at the World Rugby online learning system 

On a law there Nigel Ownes does a great monthly video on Laws, and other rugby related items called Whistle Watch – https://www.world.rugby/tournaments/videos/733274/whistle-watch/wr-whistle-watch-s4e5 

Want to get involved? 

Feel free to make contact with the Leinster Rugby Referees at hayley.whyte@leinsterrugby.ie  If you are interested in becoming a referee get in contact with us through our Facebook, our website www.leinsterrugbyreferees.ie or through twitter @leinsterreferee.