7/17/2009 Charity 7s

This is an annual 7s tournament hosted by the Raleigh Vipers benefit charity in Raleigh, NC. The tournament also coincided with my 23rd birthday this year.....so I decided to go home, visit my girlfriend, my parents, and all my old rugby friends.

Many old teammates from the Vipers were there, as were teammates from my university club, NC State.
It was a well staffed event, each referee only having to officiate 4 games.

Some interesting moments:

I was knocked over in one game....I think it was UNC v. Sir Walter Raleigh. I got straight back to my feet but I'm glad I didn't turn out like this ref:


I also had a QF end in a tie...thankfully we went straight to sudden death overtime...I didn't want to have to host ANOTHER penalty kick shootout!

The tournament organizer, knowing how far I traveled and my level of refereeing, made the decision to award me the tournament final....ECU v. Sir Walter Raleigh (a raleigh team).

It was a close game, but Raleigh's experience proved too much for ECU's pace. The strangest refereeing moment I recall in the game was when a ball flew vertically (about 30-40 feet) from a player's grasp. The ball was punched from a raleigh player's grasp....something I had never really seen before. I deemed it a knock on by Raleigh and told the ECU player to tackle not punch the ball....is this the right decision? It just seemed like such a strange action to me.

7/11/2009 Acton 10s

A lot of the same as Springfield, a good social tournament.

I remember my first game of the day was a ladies motley green (springfield) v. motley green (middlesex)! fun stuff! I recall calling a knock on only for it to have actually been a girl on the other team...dont know if I should have done this....but I hadnt signalled for the knock yet so I upgraded it to a penalty when I realized she was offside!

I also had my first experience with Boston Irish Wolfhounds, playing against Newport Riptide. I recall trying to get the #5 to roll away, clearly communicating it and awarding penalty advantage. Unfortunately, he got up, rolling away, but then elected to pick the ball up from the wrong side of the ruck! I was amazed! a flagrant professional foul I thought and deserved of a card. I'm not sure what the right decision was, but I ended up not carding the player and just gave him a stern talking to. My problem with what is a normal penalty in this case was that it was obviously intentional, there was absolutely no grey area or possiblity to misunderstand, it was flagrant. At any rate, BIW totally outclassed the other side anyway to win.

Another interesting moment of the day was the tournament final, where the referee with about 2-3 minutes to go RED CARDED (SENT OFF) a BIW player for backchat. According to the referee, it was only going to be a yellow for a consistent "your useless ref!" but when the referee requested the BIW player talk to him, the BIW told the referee "NO! your a bloody plonker!" at which point, the yellow was upgraded to red. Following this, Mystic River came out winners of what turned out to be a very entertaining final.

Also, kudos to the tournament organizer. He did an excellent job. The fields though...they were short and narrow with misaligned posts...nevertheless, it was a social tournament and a good time.

6/27/2009 Springfield 7s

This was a very fun day of 7s. I always enjoy 7s tournaments because it's a great opportunity to see many of your fellow referees, see the referee team picture above!

I don't have lot of notes from the games but I do recall that at this tournament, all three fields shared in-goal areas with each other. Well, the middle field shared both ingoal areas, the other two just shared the middle. Amazing.

As far as I know, no problems were had with this, but I was still surprised to see SHARED ingoal areas.

I recall that my first game had no penalties, something I was pretty happy about.

I had the opportunity to referee the Open final at this tournament, South Shore v. Boston 2. It was a repeat of the final from Worcester 7s, with the same winner, South Shorre.