4/3/2010 Richmond @ Raleigh

I went back to North Carolina for the Easter weekend and offered my services for the Raleigh v. Richmond game. Friday night I had a barbecue with the family and and Saturday rode over to Raleigh's awesome facilities, Poole Road. Raleigh are a MARFU D1 side, Richmond a top D2 side. It was about 80 degrees and very humid - both teams agreed to 1 minute water breaks during both halves. This was also a very special occasion for me - my brother and dad volunteered to be the Assistant Referees for the game. I brought the headsets with me and miked my family up for the match (see pic above).

Raleigh dominated the contact area and scrums. Raleigh managed to get good ball out to the backs and spread the Richmond defense thin - scoring tries from all over the field. Richmond managed to pick up an intercept try and penalty.

Raleigh (55)
Tries: 1:00 (c), 16:30, 25:05 (c), 39:05, 45:18 (c), 50:20, 67:50, 71:40 (c), 35:30 (c)
Richmond (10)
Tries: 53:05 (c)
Penalties: 58:20

Notes:

-A kick at the start of the game went straight out. Made my Dad immediately wake up as he wasnt sure if it had bounced or not. A nice wake up call for him - refereeing is serious business.
-It was good Dad was woken up because I needed him for an ingoal call. It took him a while to re-envision what had happened, but he eventually got it right. Knock on, scrum defenders.
-Dangerous tackle back inside raleigh 22 but ball was offloaded and spread well. Played advantage for dangerous tackle (communicating it very clearly). In a few phases, Raleigh scored a try. Please with myself.
-Gave a YC to Black (raleigh) 13 for repeat infringements. The penalty counts did not warrant a YC, it was #13s third tackle zone penalty. 1 penalty: shame on you,  2nd penalty shame on me, 3rd penalty: take a seat.
-Goal line penalty to Raleigh when richmond went on the wrong side. Penalty advantage given and Raleigh took to the boots (penalty reversed)
-still having general issues with offside, not pushing players back effectively
-gave penalty to richmond right in front of posts for marginal offsides. my mistake.
-Brother kept wanting to comment on immateriality. Rightfully so, but when a penalty is liable to have effect it should be confirmed (if im not sure). The incident in question was a kick and chase close offside
-Raleigh could not handle kick off receptions - they knocked on almost all of them!
-Richmond seemed a little scared to discuss game issues
-final penalty count: 18. I thought my communication was very effective on this day.


This game was a real honor to referee with my bro and dad.