Referees Corner – Issues 6 – Bath

Welcome to another edition of referees corner and a very warm welcome to today’s European Cup game between Leinster and Bath. Today’s match referee is Luc Ramos from France. Luc was born on 02/14/1991 . He comes from the Languedoc Referee Association in Southern France. He joined the French Pro D2 referee group in June 2015 after moving quickly through the ranks of junior refereeing. Since his appointment in the Elite of French Rugby (in 2019) he has evolved very regularly at the highest level and has already had 4 TOP 14 matches this season (Perpignan / Brive, Toulouse / Racing, Pau / Toulon and Montpellier / Lyon). He was also involved in the 2022 U20 Six Nations and the Autumn Internationals. He refereed Leinster v Gloucester at the RDS a couple of seasons ago. Today he will be assisted by Thomas Charabas (France) and Jonathon Gasnier (France) along with TMO Julian Castaignede. We wish them well today. Please show them the respect they deserve.

We’ve had a wonderful start to the season on the recruitment front. We had a massive turnout of over 50 attendees at our new referee course in Dublin at the start of the season and since then 23 recruits have passed their referee trail and become full members of the association. They are:

Hugh Baker – North East, Colm Barrett – Metro, Michael Carey – Metro, Fintan Corr – Metro, Robin Cunningham – Metro, Aidan Delaney – Metro, David Downey – Metro, Ray Fullam – North – Midlands, Ciarán McMahon – North East, Shane Murphy – Metro, Ben Petherbridge – Metro, Rob Pickles – North – Midlands, Justin Buhl – Metro, Sara Buratovic – Metro, Sean Kearns – Metro, Ruaidhrí O’Hanlon – Metro, Jack Treacy – North – Midlands, Paddi Marshall – Midlands, Michael Blighe – Midlands, Natanael Costa Wallace – North East, Luke Judge – Metro, Tom Kinch – South East, Hugo O’Donnell – North – Midlands.

We have another 4 referees waiting on election to the association Tony Carey – Metro, Matthew O’Neill – Metro, Brian Wilkinson –  South East and Mukhammad (Mo) Muratov – Metro and we welcomed Gerry Coyne to the Association from Munster. A lot of this great recruitment in the association is down to the hard work of Michael Carroll and Sean Gallagher alongside Hayley Whyte amongst others. 

We also extend a massive congratulations to Jack MacNeice on his promotion to the IRFU National Referee panel before the Christmas break. Jack has done immensely well since joining the association a few years ago and successfully navigated the IPAS program. We’re looking forward to seeing great things from him in the coming years. 

New Law Trials

A package of law trials aimed at enhancing fan and player experience will be adopted as a global trial across all competitions from the beginning of this year after the World Rugby Council voted in favour of change.

Four law trials have been adopted for the BKT United Rugby Championship and Investec Champions Cup from 1 January, 2025 onwards. They are:

• 60-second conversion limit to align with penalties and improve game pace – this will be managed by a shot clock where possible.
• 30-second setup for lineouts will match time for scrums to reduce downtime – this will be managed on-field by the match officials.
• Play-on rule in uncontested lineouts when the throw is not straight. (If the non-throwing team does not lift a teammate to compete for the ball, then play shall continue.)
• Scrum-half protection during scrums, rucks, and mauls. (e.g. A player who is, or was part of the ruck may not play an opponent who is near it (within 1m), and who is attempting to play the ball away)

EPCR rolled out the law trials in Round 3 of the Investec Champions Cup last weekend. URC will activate the new law trials from Round 10 (next weekend). 

The law trials do not apply in domestic game competitions, such as the Energia All-Ireland League, but are under consideration for season 2025/26.

More information is available on the World Rugby website – https://passport.world.rugby/laws-of-the-game/laws-news/global-law-trials-1-january-2025/ 

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.