Rugby Referee New Zealand

The attached game clip of a dangerous tackle, and memo from the IRB is forwarded to you for your action. This is a clip of a “RED CARD” offence as confirmed by the IRB Dangerous Tackle Memo 2009. You will note that Paddy O’Brien has sent a memo to all IRB Panel referees urging they take action in accordance with the IRB memo. Lyndon has also forwarded this information to National Squad referees. Please take the time to observe this clip and share it with your PU referees and encourage them to adopt the same protocols for such actions. Please contact me if you have any queries. Regards
Trevor Howard
Community Refereeing Manager
New Zealand Rugby Union

The High Performance Referee Team is thrilled to announce the inclusion of 6 new referees to our team. Our Selection Panel (Colin Hawke, Glenn Wahlstrom, Errol Brain & Pete Boyden) finalised their selections over the weekend and have confirmed the 6 referees, who will be joining our team at the July Camp (10, 11 & 12 July, in Auckland).

The new referees are: Matthew Muir (Canterbury), Richard Kelly (Taranaki), Grant Stuart (Waikato), Nick Briant (Bay of Plenty), Shaun Elliott (Auckland), & Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri (Auckland). My hearty congratulations to these referees.

The full HP Referee Team is: Nick Briant, Keith Brown, Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri, Shaun Elliott, Mike Fraser, Richard Kelly, Bryce Lawrence, Kane McBride, Shane McDermott, James McPhail, Matthew Muir, Vinny Munro, Glenn Newman, Josh Noonan, Chris Pollock, Ben Skeen, Matthew Stanish, Grant Stuart, Jonathon White & Garratt Williamson.

Review Team: Glenn Wahlstrom, Errol Brain, Pete Boyden, Stuart Beissel, Alan Riley & Kim Eichmann.

Coaching Team: Rod Hill, Tony Kelly, Neville McAlister, Harry Quinn, Russell Trotter, Paul Duggan, Beissel, Riley & Eichmann.

Managememt Team: Lyndon Bray, Colin Hawke & Pam Stobbs (all based at NZ Rugby Union).

I am delighted to inform you of an exciting new IRB web based product which goes live today. The new site www.irblaws.com is an interactive website which teaches and tests the Laws of the game. We are convinced that this tool will revolutionize Rugby Law education.

The key features are:

• 7 language options: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese & Russian

• All compliant with 2009 Laws as approved by IRB Council on the 13th May.

• Hundreds of video clips to illustrate the laws

• Animations to support learning

• Videos to illustrate all Referee and Assistant Referee signals

• Self-test capability which covers:

o All 22 laws

o 7’s and Under 19 variations

o Referee signals

o Video tests

o The test can be taken over multiple visits to the site

o On completion users can download an awareness certificate

• Access to the site is free to everyone

• Registration is only required when users want to undertake the tests

• We can provide Unions with regular reports on who has passed the test and who has started

• All IRB licensed Trainers and Educators will receive a DVD to use on courses when internet is unavailable.

The new site will go live at 1100 BST on Tuesday 26th May. Please do go and try it out.

Two stalwarts of South Canterbury sport who together have served for more than 100 years were acknowledged for their tremendous contribution at the annual sports awards.

Clay target shooting’s Doug King and rugby referee Brian Dore both received a special mention in the outstanding service to sport category.

King started his association with clay target shooting as a “trap boy” in 1947.

He was also involved in the shift of the Timaru Clay Target Shooting Club from Washdyke to Levels in 1950.

King was on the committee for many years and was trap master for 22 years from 1963.

For the past 12 years, the 69-year-old has coached secondary school children three days a week and still arranges the days out when social clubs and others want to try the sport.

Since 1974, every second year, he has attended the national championships in Christchurch as a trap mechanic.

He is the club’s president, groundsman and janitor.

King said he loved being involved in the sport and helping out.

“It’s in my veins. The people are marvellous and there are all sorts involved.”

Pointing to the last competition scores on the board, King said he was pleased at how the Craighead shooters were progressing.

“There are a couple of good shots in there, one girl scored 14 in her first full skeet which is really good.”

Dore has a similar record of service but in a different sport. He started with the South Canterbury Rugby Referees Association in 1970.

His passion has been fuelled by the camaraderie of the referees. which he said was very high.

“I was invited in by Tim Gresson and John Ward and have never been able to get out of it.

“It’s about working together although you are on your own on the paddock.”

After playing rugby for Zingari seniors “at halfback or wherever they were short” he turned to whistle blowing and was a referee for 12 years.

Dore was chairman from 1985 until 1994 and president for three years from 2001.

For 14 years he was the sole appointments officer and is a life member of both the rugby union and referees association.

He is still on the coaching and grading committee and the assistant appointments officer.

Dore is described, along with Norm Dickson, as one of the two “father figures” of the referees.

Others nominated for the outstanding service to sport award for their contributions were: Belinda Dore (basketball), Linley Welford (athletics), Liz Ballantyne (croquet), David Pearce (swimming), Roger Rae (football), Brian Armstrong (powerlifting) and Smiley Haua (rugby).

The International Rugby Board has formally ratified a recommendation by their rugby committee to approve 10 of the 13 global experimental law variations (ELVs) into the rules of the game. The recommendations of the IRB committee were unanimously approved and the integrated set of laws will be implemented globally from May 23. Most of the ten ELVs which will become laws of the game relate to the line-out and scrum. In addition to the suite of global ELVs, three Union-specific ELVs were also approved for integration into law. These include the ability for a Union to implement a maximum 15-minute half time in matches under its jurisdiction. IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said getting the game back under a universal set of laws across the world needed to be implemented as soon as possible. “The implementation date approved by the IRB council achieves that goal and represents the most suitable application date,” Lapasset said in a statement. “All international matches from May 23 onwards will be captured, while domestic and regional competitions played across the implementation date will be played under the current ELVs until their conclusion.” A brief rundown on each of the 10 ELVs approved to be made law on Thursday by the IRB: Law 6 – Assistant referees able to assist referees in any way the referee requires Law 19 – If a team puts the ball back in their own 22 and the ball is subsequently kicked directly into touch there is no gain in ground Law 19 – A quick throw may be thrown in straight or towards the throwing team’s goal line Law 19 – The receiver at the lineout must be two metres back away from the lineout Law 19 – The player who is in opposition to the player throwing in the ball must stand in the area between the five metre line and touch line and must be two metres from the line of touch and at least two metres from the lineout Law 19 – Lineout players may pre-grip a jumper before the ball is thrown in Law 19 – The lifting of lineout jumpers is permitted Law 20 – Introduction of an offside line five metres behind the hindmost feet of the scrum Law 20 – Scrum half offside line at the scrum Law 20 – The corner posts are no longer considered to be touch in goal except when the ball is grounded against the post