Rucktoberfest

Rucktoberfest is a tournament hosted in Boone, NC by the Gentleman of AHO Rugby Club (Appalachian State University). It's always on one of the first weekends in October and always highlighted by the beautiful mountain colors and monstrous 40-50 kegger street rugby party on Saturday night.

Rucktoberfest has in the past been a highlight of every team's fall season, but this year attendance had fallen off due to scheduling conflicts with university Fall Breaks. AHO's homecoming weekend was the first weekend of October, so it could not be held that weekend - thus conflicting with many University fall breaks which usually fall on the second or third weekends in October.

The tournament, while certainly competitive, had a distinct social atmosphere as it is understood that all teams are going to consume copious amounts of miller high life (the cheapest keg around) on the saturday night before the championship games played on sunday.
As such teams aren't at their best on sunday because they are still sweating out the booze from the night before.

Men's competitors included Elon, App. State, NC State, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Tech (motley), UNC Charlotte (who were much improved than in previous seasons), Western Carolina, and the AHO Killer Bs.

Women's included FOUR teams from UVA and teams from JMU, Virginia Tech, NC State, ECU, UNC and App State.

AHO won the men's division on sunday - they stayed mostly sober being the ones serving all the 40-50 kegs of booze at the party. Not taking anything away from them, they certainly played well, but results from the tournament are not an accurate measurement as most teams did not have their full team. UVA won the women's division. I was amazed on sunday morning when all these teams showed up to play at 9 am after that night of boozing - congratulations.

Now, from a referees perspective:

SERRS (the referee organization) decided to use this event as a "coaching" event. Many of the younger referees (including myself) were invited, along wi th many of the old wise heads of the referee society to providing "coaching." We were all to be watched at every game by a different coach and given feedback on our performance.

My first game was 9 AM on Saturday - first round of the day. Elon v. UNC Charlotte. I have a feeling that UNC Charlotte chose to play their b-side for this game - I am not totally sure why - but I dont think it was their first team from the looks of the p layers. I felt I controlled the tackle well in this game - I did not have to blow my whistle too much because I stamped my image of the tackle / ruck into the players minds with the first couple rucks blown up for "in the side" and offsides on the fringe. Elon were clearly the better team, generally able to put UNCC on the backfoot of each break down with their forwards while their backs also had the pace to back themselves on the outside. As I said earlier, I dont know why it wasnt the UNCC first side, who I've not doubt couldve competed better with their matrix opponent (Elon). A refereeing highlight for the game: I called balking for the first time ever - I dont think I have ever seen that called in an American rugby game.

Following the game I received my "coaching" which was excellent - it really gave me a different perspective on many of my on field habits:

1. I was told that my positioning on the field was too static. I like to check the tackle, check that ball is won and available, then I move back to the pocket to get an overview of the field and avoid the path of the ball / player. Now this is a common position for a referee - but my problem was this is where I went ALL THE TIME. I need to vary up my position, sometimes get on the defensive side, and sometimes beside the ruck to clear up the offside line and get a view of the field. This knowledge of posiitoning, of course, is also dependent on how the team are playing the ball - if they are running consistent phases off the side of the ruck then a position 5 meters from the open side of the ruck is reasonable, etc. It's also very important that referee position is varied such that the players cant predict where you will be and what they can away with you not seeing due to position.
   
2. Careful with my non infringement signals. I had a t endency to put my hands up to indicate I wanted players to move back to get onside. The problem was, I would keep my hands up and take them down any time I felt like - the problem with this being that the players might think that when I drop my arms it means the ball is out and they can advance, which I did not intend. A picture of the pocket and signal issues is below:
   
   
3. As game went on my penalty signal became less straight - straighten my arm out.
4. Change my kickoff positioning to standing 10 meters out from the kicker to the touchline then as they start to move for the kick to begin my run such that when the ball is in the air I am at full pace to a management position for the return.

My next game was a women's game: JMU v Virginia Tech. I was impressed with the women's skill level for this game. It proved to be a very tight game, final score being JMU 8 - 7 VT. This was a good game as I got to work on varying my position, trying new restart lines, and being more careful with what I do with my hands at a slower pace than a men's game. This game was also being played right beside the NC State tent, where all the nc state players were taking a break following their win against Coastal Carolina. I am still involved with the NC State Rugby Club, I regularly train with them and help individually coach some of the younger players - I was the President of the club in 2007-2008. During this game I got CHEERED - my nc state buddies were all jeering me on from the sideline yelling "Yeah good call larry! call that knock on! GO LARRY - you're the best referee ever!" and for most of the game continued cheering every time I blew my whistle for an infringement. I was sufficiently embarassed.

That signaled the end my day - from here we retreated back to the hotel for the referee themed dinner "Appalachian couture / chic" and then out to the social - I wont go into the social debauchery too much. Plenty of humorous referee mistakes were brought up at dinner such as one referee dressing like candy cane / barber pole to officiate. I wish I had a picture. Also - # 5 Texas beat #1 Oklahoma, did you hear?

...................

I arrived at the hotel about 3ish that night in a champagned of beer stupor to pass the hell out. I proceeded to wake up so clearly a 7 am, presumably still drunk to grab some breakfast and head to the pitches to pick up a 9 am game. Upon my arrival at the pitch I was assigned the AHO v. ECU Women's game. This game was at the closest pitch to the ref tent and while refereeing the game I could'nt help but notice that there seemed to be more referees on the sideline than rugby players or fans. As such I felt I was having "coaching" barked at me throughout the game - most of which actually turned out to be useful - which is the opposite of most things barked at you from the sideline when you're a rugby referee. I was told to vary my positioning at the lineout more and to ensure that I am on the inside of the lineout for lineouts within the 22 m line. Following the game I recieved a few more pointers from the coaches.

1. Watch for the cavalry charge. Prior to the game this law had confused me and I could not recognize the infringement. In this game I allowed one to occur and try to subsequently be scored. A cavalry charge is essentially when the players on a tap kick infringement (penalty or free kick) begin their charge before the ball has been tap kicked. The law was created because of concussions becoming increasingly common off tap kicks.
2. My breakdown positioning was well varied - I corrected myself from yesterday - a "compliment."
3. Also, when doing women's games - run the D line a bit more often as the women's running lines are typically different from men's games.
4. I still had a bit of trouble with my penalty signal - even receiving a question from a player about it. Guess I was tired - as the game wears on I swear my whistle variations get worse as do my initial signals.
5. The kickoffs were vastly improved - the advice of getting the run in before the kick was great for getting the right position.
   

Also, following this game I was criticized for my wearing of the USA Eagles CCC jersey. Sure it's tight, whatever - at least I didn't look like a candy cane - I think it looks good (see header photo).
Following this I had my first real "assistant" referee experience for the semifinal between NC State and App State. It was a good game but some reason state gave up numerous opportunities to take a pot at goal to win the game. App State won by a try or two.

Overall, it was a highly successful and enjoyable tournament. I was able to take A LOT of knowledge from this experience and meet many referees - even some from texas and new england on exchange.

Now there is a sad point to this tournament: this is likely to be my last mass run out with SERRS as I am moving to New England in December following my graduation from university. It has been great to start my refereeing career here as there are many great referees in SERRS and so much knowledge to be absorbed from them. It was also great to referee with a New England referee at this tournament as I was provided with knowledge of my future New England rugby union and referee society.