Following last weekend's debacle with my whistle, I set out to try and not blow it so much this time - failing miserably.
The stage was set, Friday night:
Davidson, a team who had just started playing rugby, none of the team members had played more than a handful of games in their lifetime.
vs.
Charlotte Socials, a team in their twilight years of rugby, out to inflict dirty tricks on a bunch of young ambitious rugby players. There were also a number of Charlotte super league players in the mix as their game the following day was cancelled (Washington RFC).
I should have realized before it was not going to be easy.
I had not refereed any of the charlotte socialite players before (aside from a few at 7s), so they were unfamiliar with my style and immediately set out to test my tolerance levels - both in actual play and how much they could talk to me, after all, all of these guys were at least 10 years older than myself, in some cases probably 30 years. The Charlotte Socialites were coming at me from all directions, breaking every subtle law they could, barking at me about every call, moaning, walking, and having beer breaks on the sideline. To Davidson's credit, they put up a very good match for these old men, using their youthful pace and athleticism to bowl through them and score some very good breakaway tries.
In the end, Charlotte came out winners of a close game, I think it was about 24-20 or something around there.
Despite all the barking, the socialites did pick up on a few errors I made, letting me know in exuberant fashion, including a strange situation:
Socialite player makes a typical HORRIBLE chip kick, he might have been able to do these 20 years ago, but I think age caught up with this guy. At any rate, an ignorant Davidson player decides to "volleyball" hit this ball on the descent of the kick (making it not a charge down, which is what I'm guessing the davidson player thought it was). I call knock on advantage charlotte, at which point a davidson player claims the ball on the ground - advantage over - scrum charlotte. As it turns out, Davidson player was in front of the knock on...making it OFFSIDES, penalty to charlotte, error by me, never to be made again.
Overall, the game was not a fun experience with all the abuse, but I learned a lot from dealing with these older guys trying to pull one over on me. At the post game social I had a lot of compliments from the Davidson side (probably because I penalized charlotte so much, rightfully so).
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