6/20/2009-6/21/2009 Pittsburgh U-19 NASC

This tournament was a tough decision for me, and will add to this post as time goes on.

At the last minute I decided to take a day of vacation from work and make the 8 hour drive to Pittsburgh for the East Coast u19 Challenge...all star teams from all the local area unions up the east coast.

I had never been yelled at more before in my whole career refereeing. It was absolutely appalling to me, but when you referee higher levels you are expected to be perfect.

I could write and write about errors I made, especially I have videos of two of my games thanks to bill burch http://www.lineoutvideo.com/.

I had tried to apply many of the NERFU tourney evaluator's tips, but my only resolution to that is I was not ready to. I was stressed out about missing work and attending this tournament at such short notice, It all affected me and I just dont feel like I refereed well....as I already said...especially after seeing the video.

Looking back on the games I had some just plain wrong calls. I never had a win/loss effect on a game, but I really question some of my 50/50 gray area calls. If there's anything to take away from this tournament I think it is to establish my standard firmly from the start in non-consequential positions (feed, bridging v. collapse, foot up, etc.). It's not a fond memory of the weekend.

Despite my perceived poor performances, the tournament assignors gave me a great game on Sunday, the u-17 final, MetNY v. N Ohio. I had ARs for this game but for w/e reason I defended all of my decisions when they were really giving me good advice from the sidelines...I was just stubborn and insecure of my performances over the weekend.

Enough trashing myself, it was a very valuable experience and a great test. I know where my mistakes were, and know what I want to work on. I met some great referees and made some great new friends, I will see them all at saranac very soon.

6/13/2009-6/14/2009 NRU U-19 Ladies, LAU All Stars

After the two CDYR games I traveled down the to the Albany Knicks field to referee to ladies U19 All star games.

The first game was New England vs. Met NY. Met NY lost some girls the night before to prom duties and injury, barely having a full side. New England ran away with this game easily.

The second game of the day was New England v. NYS. This was a very competitive game, I was impressed with many of these girl's athleticism. New England eventually ran out winners, I think the score was 20-10.

I unfortunately started to experience bad overuse pain my right leg. I tried some rehab on saturday without much success, I tried refereeing on sunday, but for the first time ever, forfeited my game about halfway through to another referee.

New England were eventual comprehensive winners of the tournament.

6/13/2009 CDYR Tournament

To start with a side note, I made the times union! this is from back in April when I did these girls first game of rugby. http://blog.timesunion.com/youthsports/youth-rugby-kicks-off/708/

This was the first annual Capital District Youth Rugby Tournament. To sum it up, it has been a great pleasure being involved with the development of this league in its third year. I've been able to help coach on occasion and I feel as though I really helped these boys learn rugby through my refereeing.

This tournament did not determine league champion, this was already won by Albany Bulldogs, but was just a tournament culmination with a tournament champion awarded. The tournament was seeded as follows:

1. Albany Bulldogs v. 4. Kingston Rugby
2. Berkshire v. 3. Southern Tier (Binghamton)

The bottom three sides played a round robin: Schenectady, Saratoga, and Rensselaer

Now to my games:

Schenectady 19 -15 Saratoga

I refereed Schenectady three times in total this season, and this game was by far their best. They finally got their 8 man back...he got injured by GLASS on the field at one of the first practices. Oh boy was this kid a bruising ball carrier....everytime he got his hand on the ball Schenectady got on the front foot. This whole team fed off this go forward ball holding on for the win at the end of the game.

Kingston 20 - 22 Albany

This was the 1 v 4 semifinal. This game came down to the wire with Albany scoring a try and conversion on full time for the win. I'm not going to lie, but during the game, I really enjoyed Kingston's style of game. They had a bit more size than Albany (who had A LOT more pace), and used their size to great effect. Taking advantage of the law changes (no maul collapses) Kingston murdered Albany in the set piece. It seemed every line out would get them great go forward ball as they won clean and got a good mauling drive. It also seemed, despite my best management and communication, that Albany could never find the offside line at the maul...seeing Kingston win a number of penalties...kicks to touch..and lineouts. It was a good Second Rows style of game (me, haha).

At any rate, the Kingston smash mouth kind of game eventually wore them down...their fitness showing. Albany came back at the death to win and enter the final.



Now, this was the first of a few championships this season which came down to PENALTY KICKS. I totally disagree with this tie breaker method, it is not representative of a rugby team..FORWARDS DO NOT TRAIN TO KICK THE BALL. It is not appropriate to determine a game winner, there must be another method. It was heinous that Cardiff Blues lost the heineken cup semi this year on kicks, it's just not fair.

Fortunately, I was not there to watch this sour penalty kick affair, as I was sent to referee the NRU U19 Girls All star championship that afternoon and sunday.

5/24/2009 Simsbury 7s

This was my first sevens tournament of 2009, a small (10 teams) get together of high school sides in connecticut and western Massachusetts.

I just purchased a new car (kia soul) before this tournament, so I was eager to take it on a nice drive, and the drive through the Connecticut countryside to historic Simsbury Connecticut (Just west of Hartford), did the trick. (insert pic of kia soul).

I really enjoyed the tournament despite being staffed by only 3 referees: myself, another young guy, and an older fella. The older fella, whom I will not name, decided Sam and I were young, so after he did one game, he resigned the refereeing duties to sam and I, two on, two off….all day long. “Older Fella” enjoyed his Gatorades and the shade, chatting with the area old boys…but sam and I did not complain, we were having fun out there. In all, Sam and I refereed 8 games or so a piece.

The most interesting point of the day was the final, which I was refereeing. I believe it was between the home town boys (Simsbury High) and Cheshire rams. It was a very tight game but late in the first half an incident from earlier in the day wreaked havoc on the game. One of the players had a concussion earlier in the day, and either did no realize it or did not report it. Of no matter, in forming a line out, the player collapsed and began having a seizure/convulsing on the field. It was a scary site and brought to my mind memories of the Longwood incident in VA, where a player did not report a concussion and collapsed after a game…dying two weeks later.

It took sometime for the ambulance to arrive (EMTs were available immediately), but delayed the game substantially. The executive decision was made by the organizers, after such a scary incident, to end the final early with Simsbury in the lead. I am not sure what the organizers decided, but I don’t think a winner was declared.
Beyond the final, this was a great day of rugby, and I hope to find myself there again in the coming seasons.

5/16/2009 NERFU Championship: Monadnock - Mad River/Mt. Washington

The NERFU Championship, a nice long weekend up in a Northern New Hampshire small town at the bottom of mount washington, North Conway.

I traveled up with two Albany Knicks players on friday evening....going up through the mountains and vermont and into New Hampshire..a beautiful drive.

I was given a full 80 minute game on saturday, Division 4 Monadnock (NH) v. Mad River (VT). I thought I would have got a better game, oh well. I work with what I get. Both of these teams were up to it and put together a fantastic game of rugby with a score of Monadanock 44 - 35 Mad River...it was certainly not a fantastic defensive display. Nevertheless, it was entertaining. Mad River punched in two tries early in the game with some lucky kick and chases...I almost needed to make some key offside calls but managed to get the players to stop before they were really material.

I unfortunately cannot remember too many key moments of the game, but the evaluator had a number of concepts to explain to me. He had a few key messages and concepts:

Manage the tackle, not the post tackle

He told me to really focus on anticipating play even more. Know how this tackle is going to play out before it happens so you can manage all issues before they even become an issue.

Stand up straight, don't shuffle and bend over

Lets face it, I'm tall and goofy. I need to stand up straight, maintain my posture, and exude confidence....laugh less...I'm not trying to be friends with the players, I am refereeing their game. He said overall it was ok, but to really actively think about my posture and rapport with players.

Fitness

I have a bad ankle, I limp a little, and look slow, but I'm not. In order to get over the ankle, I need to be especially fit so it's not even an issue.

Long Whistles, not beeps, when they dont listen.

Work on 'reflex' advantage. I had 6 advantages in this game, one stuck. Not good.

and more and more and more. The evaluator and I had a long very productive discussion. Hopefully he comes to Saranac and sees improvements.

Here is the evaulator comments, I wont go to his stats. They were a lot worse than what I thought, and what all the players thought, was an excellent game.

In our post match discussion we chose to focus on only the two areas we thought would most improve your refereeing in the near to medium term. These were: your mobility around the field (both perceived and real) and your (as a referee) ability to anticipate and manage events rather than merely react to the outcomes of phases such as tackles, scrum engagements and so on. Because you limp from your injury you are perceived to be slower than you are. My impression is that you run quickly and could do even more so if you were absolutely aerobically fit and anticipated and reacted more swiftly to the flow of play. I’d suggest you set yourself a fitness target of Level 11:8 on the bleep test and work with your Physical Therapist to attain this. You might also work at speeding up your immediate acceleration.

The second objective is for you to learn how you can anticipate events (like the probable outcome of a tackle) in order that you can manage it vocally to try to prevent negative outcomes such as pile ups. I enjoyed our discussion on tackle management but would recommend you stock up with DVDs of good rugby (not Super 14) and watch and learn. Put yourself inside the referee. Watch the match through his eyes. What is he seeing? Is he early enough to the tackle to manage it positively? Is he tolerant or harsh toward players on the ground? Does he appear to have his own game plan designed to make the match open, faster, free flowing or intense? Refereeing may be an art, but it is surely grounded in science.

5/31/2009 Kingston Girls U19 @ Rennselaer Girls U19

so, I mentioned the drunk barefoot touch rugby from the albany knicks family day....I didn't realize how sore my groin was until I started running this game on sunday.

Luckily it was a blowout against the dragon ladies...so my lack of ability to move did not matter much.

I should mention that hte Rennselaer boys and girls have acquired themselves a decent field at the VFM post out in Poestenkill. Good going rensselaer.

5/30/2009 Saranac Lake Mountaineers @ Saratoga Mustangs

Saratoga Stampede: 17

Saranac Lake Mountaineers: 50

Beautiful conditions, unfortunately it was a very poorly marked field. Red lines, shared with the white lines of a soccer field. Not only were the red lines barely visible, they were not parallel with the soccer lines or goal lines. This made it very difficult for the referee, assistant referees, and players, to decipher touchlines, try lines, 22s, etc.

Scoreline is not indicative of the game up until 60 minutes. Very competitive game between two evenly matched sides. Both teams demonstrated their ability the pass it out wide use their athleticism in the backline to break and/or pass out of the tackle.

Unfortunately in the 60th minute, with the score at Saranac 19 - 17 Saratoga, one of Saratoga's backline players decided to pick up a gallon of water off the sideline and throw it at a saratoga player.
No questions, the player was sent off. The floodgates then opened up, saranac scoring try after try, final score 50-17.
A very sad way to decide such a closely fought game, but there is no place in rugby for that kind of behavior.

Following the game, Saratoga hosted a great social in downtown. Food beer, the works. Here I found out the player who through the gallon of water actually had a bit of history for these types of acts....

After sometime with Saratoga I traveled down to the Albany Knicks who were hosting their annual "Family Day." By Family Day they mean, intrasquad scrimmage, beer, pig picking, then drunk touch rugby....with a beer in your hand. It was a very good time.