3/29 UNC Chapel Hill B vs. UF B

I was appointed to this game after my Dan River v. Eno River game was cancelled due to lack of players.

Curtis Ethridge refereed the first game and stayed to watch me referee the B-side game. This game was trouble from the start for me - being watched by another ref - and both teams wearing blue! (One Light, One Navy) This was truly unfortunate for me as I continued to yell out BLUE ADVANTAGE! and the players kept asking me...who has advantage sir???? Well I tried to show that I was pointing to the team with advantage, but the players typically just listen to me when I say this, not look at me. At any rate, this rattled me and caused me to have a poor game all around - it really put me of my stride. I improved in the second half after having time to regroup - but still hesitated entirely too much in my officiating of the game.

I also continued my method of being in front of play in this game - I found myself exposed and obstructing on many occasions. I corrected this at half time per Curtis' instructions, and it has been corrected every since that discussion and discussion with my older brother Ben Whysall and Ivan Morton (both referees).

5/31 Cape Fear U19 Intrasquad Scrimmage

As I am living in Wilmington, NC at the moment, and have been playing touch with the Cape Fear Rugby club on Tues/Thurs, I offered to referee their U19 scrimmage. This was the first time these boys had played a game of sevens, and only the second time they had actually played rugby! It was great to help teach these boys rugby. The biggest problem they had was reacting to ADVANTAGE, when one of them knocked the ball on or committed a penalty they all tended to just stop and wait for me to do something after I said advantage instead of taking advantage of the situation! Towards the end of the day (They played three games) they started to get this though - and some great tries came from it. Some of the boys have rugby experience being from Australia / England, but the majority are Wilmington grown and learning the sport. There were many good athletes out there and I think Bob Bogen (the U19 coach) could really make these boys go somewhere.

3/22 Ruggerroast 2008

RuggerRoast 2008 was a small tournament hosted by a small club located in Dan River, VA - The Dan River Silverbacks. In the past many would have considered RuggerRoast to be a major tournament and Dan River to be a major rugby club, but in recent years Dan River's economy struggled and so did the rugby team. The club is currently in a rebuilding phase, and the right people seem to be in place to grow the club. Dan River are in the unique position that they are one of 4 clubs in North Carolina that own their own pitch (Raleigh Rugby, Charlotte Rugby, Cape Fear, Dan River) There is actually a major rugby dedicated rugby facility in Dan River, VA known as Angler park. The MBA World Champs and North Carolina Rugby Union tournaments are held at this facility. So, Dan River has an advantage most rugby clubs in America do not have - facilities. Hopefully Dan River will capitalize on this and continue to invest and grow their rugby club.

The teams participating in this tournament were Dan River, Southern Pines, Blacksburg, and Roanoke. None of these teams brought their first side, instead opting to each bring a team built up largely of their second side. I was charged with refereeing Dan River v. Blacksburg and Blacksburg v. Roanoke (final). In the lead up to this tournament, I received some refereeing advice from a former B-panel referee in regards to watching the offsides line. He recommended that instead of positioning myself in the pocket, that I position myself in front of the attack, and move as it came to me, rather than following the play. This method proved to be very effective policing the offside lines, but did cause me to miss some blatant hands in the ruck (knocking out of scrumhalves' hand). I have since gone back to positioning myself in the pocket as I have gained more experience in determining if a player is offside, but still position myself in front of play when near the try line.

In the first game of the morning Dan River played Blacksburg. Dan River competed well for about the first 15 minutes, scoring a try, but faded away for the rest of the game as Blacksburg piled on the score. Dan River managed a try in the last 20 minutes through their captain...and second row..... off of a really funny looking chip and chase. Final score Blacksburg 60 - 14 Dan River.

In the final Blacksburg out-played Roanoke, but not as much as they did Dan River. Roanoke seemed more interested in trying to influence my calls than play rugby. Their captain was very disrespectful - I probably should have reached for my pocket, but being the inexperienced referee I am - I did not. I allowed play to go on as this captain kept talking to me, and while I'm sure I was not being a biased referee, it sure did seem that the more this Roanoke captain talked to me - the more penalties against him I called. So, Blacksburg ran out 27-7 winners, clinching the tournament championship.

At the post-tournament social I feasted with some of my NC State buddies who were playing for Southern Pines on a massive amount of superb Dan River made wings. At this social I also met some of the Blacksburg guys for some constructive criticism - this included making my advantage calls much clearer and stressing to players that they need to tell me they want the penalty and not the advantage.

3/8 Charlotte High School Tournament

This was a great opportunity for me to referee a lower level of rugby and help "teach" younger players. I was told to be lenient with many of the players with law explanations, but be very strict on high tackles, late charges, and any kind of "dangerous" play.

Being a low level of rugby where I am allowed to do a bit of "teaching" was great for me as a new ref, because in explaining the laws to many of these young'uns, I further understand the intracicies of the laws and their purpose much better. The tournament was also a great opportunity for me to be watched by other referees and receive feedback. The feedback was great, I was told new methods for positioning and watching the offside line, offering commands to the players (tackler release, hands out, use it), signals, and much more. One of the most significant things I took from this tournament was facing North and South as much as possible - as this has helped me form my checklists in each facet of play (i.e Ruck....find the ball....won.....back up to pocket......check offsides.....continue).

I refereed this tournament with clubmate (NCSU) Joe Hogan, in what would be his first proper experience refereeing. Joe Hogan is on his way to Irag at the moment, so best of luck to him in his work for our country and Marines.

I was assigned to referee three B-side games and one U-15 game. (East Chapel Hill, Myers Park, Charlotte Catholic, VC Gold, Monroe U-15, Chapel Hill U-15) I was impressed with the number of players these clubs are getting, and I really hope these clubs continue to grow. It looks like there's a bright future for North Carolina and USA rugby with all these young rugby players coming through.

2/29 Elon 20 - 17 Duke (Elon, NC)

This was my second 80 minute game. It was also effectively the North Carolina Division 3 Collegiate championship, as both teams were 4-0 in their division, playing for the home semifinal against the South Carolina D3 runner up (Coastal Carolina ). The loser would have to travel to Furman, who are perennial division 3 champions. Not only did the game have such an influence on the teams post-season progress, there was also at least 150 people on the sideline! The game was being played on a cold February Friday night under lights with a very loud and critical crowd.

While it was probably not appropriate that I was assigned to this game, I will say that I learned A LOT by doing it. It is definitely the most emotional and meaningful game that I have been responsible for officiating. The coaches of Duke and Elon were kind enough to provide....constructive? criticism following the game.

The game was very tightly contested, with the lead changing on multiple occasions. Duke stuck to the same game plan they used against UNC-Charlotte, utilizing their powerful and accurate kickers to punish Elon's back three with in-field kicks. Duke also benefited from being able to kick penalty goals from the 10 meter. Elon were a bit more organized than Duke, using a more methodical game plan, maintaining possession and scoring typical tries with their forwards and half backs off the base of rucks.

If I am remembering correctly, Elon maintained possession for much of the game, but had a difficult time finishing. Duke, using their kick and chase plan, could use their little possession to manufacture points. It was back and forth for the whole game, with Duke going into half time in a slight lead. As the game wore on I made an unfortunate error with about 10 minutes to go and Elon two points down, I obstructed a defender near the Duke line, and had to call back a try scored by the Elon halfback. This did not go well with the Elon crowd, but Elon maintained their position and with about 2 minutes to go, punched in the game winning try.

As a Lock / Backrower throughout my playing career, I mostly watched and refereed the forwards based portion of the game. I felt I did a decent job with my watching the offsides on kicks, keeping the hands out of the rucks, keeping guys on their feet, and coming in straight to the maul/ruck. What I did VERY poorly, was watch the backlines, as I have no experience in the backline. I found myself, and this was noted by Elon's coach (a South African) after the game, watching the rucks too closely and not facing the backlines. Fortunately, both teams benefited from my ignorance, and took advantage of me not enforcing the offside law there.

I also had a lot of trouble with signals and whistle volume in this game, but this was compounded by the loud atmosphere of the game.

As I said before, this game was a baptism of fire. I probably should not have been assigned this game, but I do feel it served to develop my game much faster than it would have otherwise.

Spring 2008 Schedule

2/16 UNCC 12 Duke 26 – Shadow

This was my shadow game - my first experience as a proper referee. I was shadowing Paul Gauthier. It was a scrappy game, being only D3, and Duke came out easy winners. UNCC had little to offer rugby wise, but did have a few players who produced some strong runs. Duke impressed me with their skillful players - the flyhalf, in particular, had a powerful and accurate boot which the team used to full effect. Having seen Duke in this game, Elon, and the UNC 7s, I believe they could be a good team in the NCRU - they just need to add a bit of size to their pack Duke, I think the whole team is Under 85 kg!

As a referee watching this game I learned to respect Paul Gauthier, the man is 70+ years old and still out there doing the job.

2/23 Boston College Women - UVA B

This was my first game as a referee for 80 minutes - it was also my first time refereeing a women's game. I was in for a shock. Positioning, signals, whistle volume, in goal laws, etc. It was all bad! I was told at half time to stop blowing my whistle so much - it seems that in low level games such as this, you just cant blow up every infraction unless the materiality is severe - because you could literally blow the whistle everytime another person touches the ball. The players didnt ruck - they would fall over and the throw the ball (no intention to push it backwards) and there wasnt any rucks - they just thought they were playing soccer and kicking the ball about! Enough griping, as a referee I did not know how to make this game run properly and it was an important learning experience for me. UVA B ran out winners by a few tries.

2/23 NCSU B vs. Wake B

On the same day I refereed the NCSU vs. Wake B-side game. My older brother, Ben Whysall, refereed the A-side game. After such a bad game in the morning, this was MUCH better. We only played 40 minutes and things went fairly smoothly. I was told I missed the kicker being taken out twice, but I often disagree when coaches try to tell me that happened. It seems to me that more often than not a player is fully committed to the tackle after a kick, the only thing I am responsible for in a late charge is to ensure that the tackle is legal (i.e. wrapped, brought to ground) if not obscenely late.

I also found it difficult to referee the breakdown and watch offsides in this game. There were a couple times where I hesitated at a breakdown in determining which side was infringing, this caused some confusion on the field - but nothing serious. I was not sure how to watch offisdes well in this game, but there was apparently not any serious infringements, I learned all about the offside law in my next game...a bit of a baptism of fire (Duke @ Elon).