5/22/2010 Assistant Referee: USA Rugby Western Playoffs

I was pleased to be invited, but the conditions were not conducive to good rugby. I was an AR for six games, a mixture of D1, D2, and D3. Nobody really performed well - it was way too hot humid. Two referees went to the hospital with heart issues from the heat. Not enough ARs to cover the amount of games.

It was good to see the top level of club rugby - and many USA players that I have admired, but the weather was just good for rugby.

5/29/2010 Denton Memorial Sevens Tournament

loooooooooooong hot day.

good practice sevens refereeing.

Did too many games - 8 at final scorecard count. But I think im missing some - each scorecard was doing up to triple and quadruple duty.

Denton v. FW.
First morning game had a few penalties - offsides at penalty, not releasing tackled player, and zone violations.


Next game had scrum issues. One player would not get full binds - but i could not find in the laws where it required him to for sevens. caused instability...though he was a lot stronger than his opposition. stupid me.

Next game was a fun one, back and forth down the field close match between DARC and OU. OU put some distance at the end to win 21-12. Had an interesting law issue in this one - free kick and fifty. Player taps then attempts a "drop-goal." Drop goal went dead. Is it a 22 meter drop or a scrum option? was the "drop-kick" an attempted "drop-goal" or simply a kick going dead?

Quins v OU next. 5-0. Lots of issues with the scrums - Quins testing me in every way. Foot in, driving early, wheeling. Really slowed the game down with my resets and penalties at scrum time.

FW 14 - 5 Woodlands. This was a pool decider. FW pulled away with their stronger running style. Not much sevens on display here.

Quins v. Woodlands. Quins ran them ragged. Quins threw a punch on a scrum hold. I had complaints about this in other matches for the quins.

FW v. Woodlands rematch. FW had more injuries since - Woodlands won this one handily.

Cup Final - Shreveport v. Quins. The most challenging match of the day. Quins went up fast and early. Got a decision wrong on a kickoff. Knocked forward by quins - then knocked back by quins player in front - in sevens...opposition is pretty much always in position to take advantage. Slightly impeded on Shreveport player - but I thought he was clear for the try anyway. I disallowed one conversion kick for hte quins. They score behind one post, then kicked from behind the other - I yelled and yelled to stop him, no matter. Disallowed kick. Unfortunately this proved a deciding factor in a 28-26 decision. Shreveport tackled a quin as he was picking up the ball - quins lost it, Shreveport picked it up to dot down and convert for the lead. They took their time on the last kick - with my permission - with me saying there will be time for a kickoff. On the KO the quins got tackled into touch - game over. Fun one.

Most common penalty of the day was for the ball carrier not moving away from the ball. A couple tackler not releasing, multiple zone violations - but most common was the ball carrier not moving away form the ball - preventing an opposition player from playing the ball legally.

Overall - fun day, long day, but some great sevens reps were fit in.

5/8/2010 Assistant Referee: Denver Highlanders @ HARC

HARC lost this one in a shocker. HARC got too confident and were on the bad end of some decisions. HARC ended their undefeated season with a 1 point defeat to the 4th seeded side out of Eastern Rockies - horrible.

As an AR I had good rapport with the referee, but missed one opportunity to confirm a highlander try by not going to the back of ingoal.

Should have made clearer to the referee some of the issues in the game.

Here is a match report:


http://www.rugbymag.com/news/clubs/mensclubs/harc-highlanders-meet-again.aspx

Here are some highlights from the HARC season - lots of tries from when I refereed the SA game.


HARC Bulls 2010 Highlights from Kyle Wittenbraker on Vimeo.