Didsbury Toc H Mini and Referees

Referees and Toc H

As a big club, we host 2, 3 or even 4 homes games each week, all requiring referees. The Manchester and District society - MADRef - have really supported us over the years providing society refs for as many games as possible. Now with the new intermediate leagues the need for referees is greater than ever. Society numbers are falling and our club refs are getting-on a bit.

Could you do it?

Maybe your playing days are over but you still love the game and want to be involved. If you would like to become a club ref for Didsbury call Mike Harrison (0161 445 9254), who can arrange training, from a society ref, to boost your confidence, before giving you a few easy games to begin with. If you want to become a society referee click here

The web-site www.learnrugbylaws.com contains a quiz to help you learn and apply the laws.

Referee Abuse

Unfortunately, there is now plenty of evidence nationally that the abuse of referees by players, coaches, officials and spectators is a major cause of referee dissatisfaction and referee resignations or retirements.

As a club we need to make sure we continue to treat our referees with respect.

The RFU task group defines abuse as

“ Individual perception of personal degradation be it mental or physical, before, during and after the game including (but not limited to):

verbal or physical assault
intimidatory conduct
racial or sexual harassment”.

This is clearly different from jocular comments, on or off the pitch, or reasoned and constructive criticism that all referees must be prepared to accept as part of the ‘territory’.

In the future clubs will be asked to:

sign a Code of Conduct,
publicise their anti-abuse stance
ensure the marking of, and adherence to, a ‘technical area’ for coaches, water carriers (maximum two) and medics / physio’ only.

The club and all our members need to work together to maintain the numbers of ref's available and help the society to help us. Cheshire RFU have written some guidance on why referees might be disillusioned and what we can do as a club to prevent this. www.cheshirerfu.co.uk/ref.htm

As a club Didsbury Toc H RFC feel that referee abuse is not a significant problem with our members, however a small minority occasionally overstep the mark, and this is not acceptable.