9/13 ECU, NCSU @ Cape Fear

Each of the following games played 30 minute halves:

12:00 PM Cape Fear 10 - 40 ECU

1:15 PM ECU B 3 - 24 NCSU B

2:30 PM NCSU A 12 - 42 ECU A

3:45 PM Cape Fear/ NCSU MOTLEY 17 - 0 ECU B

I officiated the Cape Fear vs. ECU game, the last 10 minutes of the NCSU A vs. ECU A game (due to the other ref pulling his calf), and the motley game.

ECU has done an excellent job of recapping the play for the day, http://ecurugby.weebly.com/1/post/2008/09/ecu-opens-fall-campaign-with-victories.html

NC State took firm control of the the NCSU ECU game, the forwards supporting and providing plentiful go forward ball. NCSU's game plan, however, tired very quickly - it was hot and humid as hell outside. As NCSU's pack tired - ECU took quick advantage, running through the uncovered NCSU backline defence to score. ECU definetly showed they have some very skilled backline players - but for them to go further this season it seems as though they need to improve the organization of their game as their game plan seems primarily based on the athleticism of their backs.

NCSU need to diversify their game plan - it is too simple. They can maintain possession and work their way down the field - but the finishing ability is just not there. Phases off the side of the ruck will not get you in the try zone every time.

From a refereeing point my biggest question on the day was is a "ruck" a "ruck" when there is no opposition committed? ECU, being much smaller than many of the Cape Fear players, would often not contest the breakdown at all. Cape Fear would take the ball in, ECU tackler going to ground, Fear players would keep their feet coming over the ball forming what was most of the time an uncontested ruck. Uncontested either because a contesting ECU player lost his feet or immediately disengaged from the ruck having realized it was lost. Now, how long should I allow for Fear to play the ball before I call it out - as after all - there is no opposition so there is no ruck - no need to wait for the ball to "come out." It seams unreasonable for me to allow the ECU players to come around immediately - as they did choose to not contest - but what is the right amount of time? or should it be blown immediately?

Considering this situation in international and guinness premiership games the ball is generally played immediately, causing no concern like this. In lower level games, where players are less knowledgeable, this situation is more likely to happen, and what is the right decision?

Overall, the event was great. Cape Fear but on food and beverage for everyone and there were even a couple "zulus." The B-side boys from both clubs all showed up very well considering for most of them it was there first time playing rugby.

Summer 2008

5/17 Airborne 7s - Fort Bragg, NC

This was a fairly social sevens event hosted in Fayetteville, NC by Fort Bragg RFC - an army base. Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC) came out easy winners of the tournament. Competitors included Southern Pines, Bragg, Lejeune, Raleigh, Providence Hoggs, and more. The closest game of the day was Fear v. Raleigh early in the morning.

5/24 Memorial Day 7s - Charleston, SC

This tournament included many teams from NC, SC, and Georgia. Many of the larger rugby clubs, such as Charlotte (USA Super League Club), entered a few different sides under names such as "Playas," "Super Friends," "Legion of Doom," and "Team Beautiful." The tournament was definetly of a higher level than the Airborne Sevens, but still had a distinct social atmosphere. I can't recall the winners of the event - I know Fear lost in the semis to one of the Charlotte teams.

I got to meet many different referees at this event from regions much further south - including USA national panel referees - who watched and commented on a couple of my games. They provided some good input for sevens refereeing with regards to positioning, penalties, and forward passes. As anyone who has watched a real life rugby game knows, referees miss "forward" passes and knocks, it's inevitable, we cant see everything - but what many people form the sideline don't realize is that not all forward passes are really "forward." If the balls momentum carries it forward....even though it is directed backwards, it is NOT a forward pass. Anyone who doubts me, watch this video from the ARU (with some horrible 80s music)




6/21 Triad 7s - Greensboro, NC

Triad Rugby Club, based out of Greensboro, NC, competes in USA Rugby South Men's Division 3, but I really wonder why they aren't competing at a higher level. Greensboro now has a men's high school team and three men's university teams (Elon, Guilford, UNCG) - four if you include Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. That's FIVE teams that feed the Triad Rugby Club, where do all those players go after graduation? All the rugby players can't be moving out of Greensboro right out of college - where is the retention?

At any rate, this tournament was of a similar level to Airborne Sevens. The highlight of the day was the final between a Charlotte Team (heartwood??) and ECU. Prior to kickoff, the Charlotte team performed their version of a haka - similar to New Zealand's Ka Mate Haka - but with the use of chainsaws revving and smoking in the middle of the field. It was quite a spectacle - I wish I could post a youtube video of it for you.

Instead, here's a haka video:





7/5 Cape Fear 7s - Wilmington, NC

In summer 2008 I was living in Wilmington, NC - as such - I requested to be a part of officiating this tournament. The Cape Fear 7s tournament, held every July 4th Weekend - is the premier sevens tournament in the Southeast - many consider it to be one of the most important 7s tournaments in the country.

This year the USA Rugby decided to bring it's National Focus Panel of referees down to have a look at them - thus, many SERRS refs who would have normally officiated the tournament were not invited - including myself. I, however, being a local - decided to show up and offer my services anyway. SERRS el presidente and many of the older national referees were happy to oblige - at one point giving me 3 games back to back!!!!! (high school, old boys, and club divisions). Then, at kangaroo court that night, they had the nerve to enforce beverage consumption and general embarassment on me for stupidly accepting 3 games back to back.....bastard shady old referees.

At this sevens tournament there is generally a few international touring sides..and they generally win it. This year, however, NOVA turned it over on a British Army touring side - winning a very entertaining final.

7/26 Bele Chere 7s - Asheville, NC

I don't have a lot to say about the rugby - the final was Asheville v. Greenville, Greenville came out on top. Most of the teams were social sides, all there for the same reason - Bele Chere - a big hippy redneck festival deep in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. It was a great weekend full of rugby, hippies, rednecks, mullets, booze, lots of live music, and shenanigans.

Me and a good friend from work made the trip up to Asheville, NC from Wilmington, NC - basically traveling the entire length of North Carolina. We picked up two NCSU ruggers on the way. On the way I got on the Tom Leykis Radio show - for those of you who know who that is.

We arrived on friday night to discover the tournament was actually in Hendersonville, NC - about 20 minutes outside of Asheville - and my hotel was there as well. We did not make it into Bele Chere that night due to horrible traffic conditions to the festival, so we had a few at Applebees and called it a night.

Rugby started the following morning and conveniently ended at about 3 PM - at which point we booked it into Asheville to join the bele chere festivities. I wont explain too much - hopefully pictures help:

Creepy emo art
Asheville sunset...from rooftop bar
until 6 AM that morning.....

THE NEXT DAY:

off the Blue Ridge Parkway

A Great Way to end the summer.....
The USA v. Clermont Auvergne game was the weekend after this.....blogpost to come...

The rest of spring 2008

My first season of refereeing wrapped up as follows:

4/12 - 4/13 MBA World Cup

This was an event to remembered. Every April, the Duke University Fuqua School of Business hosts the MBA Rugby World Championships. This celebrated event has been held since 1980 and is typically attended by 25 or more of the world’s most prestigious graduate business programs.

In 2008 it was plagued by some serious monsoon type weather (april showers) - with all the fields having standing water. I had a really good time - the rugby, even though it was wet and slow - fit the style of teams competing at the tournament and made for a good event.

The first day was a stop and go affair - any time there was lightning there was a required 30 minute break. The day, however, did finish as intended. I unfortunately cannot remember exactly who I refereed - but I do remember being assigned Ivey (Canadian Business School) 3 times, awarding a penalty try, and thinking NYU were a bunch of pricks (they were very mouthy).

I refereed the Plunger Final (for 17th out of 22) between Chicago and Harvard B. This was by far my best game, from a refereeing perspective, and from an entertainment perspective. Harvard B pushed ahead with an early try and conversion through a backs play. They also picked up a penalty to round out their scoring at 10. Chicago got one try in the first half, leaving them with 5. In the last play of the game Chicago scored another try, making it 10-10 - leaving me with the fear of going into overtime. Luckily, Chicago nailed the difficult conversion for win, 12-10.

The second day I had my first assessment by Ray Davis. I did not feel the game went well - I even made a blatantly wrong call (calling a scrum for what should've been a 22 drop by grounding in goal). Fortunately I was still promoted to C3 that weekend.

4/19 Enodiaks @ Guilford

Guilford College is based out of Greensboro, NC and is a member of USA Rugby South's Collegiate Men's Division 3. I don't know the last time they won their conference - but it has not been since I have been in college (2004). Guilford, however, did show up well on this day where I had my first experience ever with them. They were playing Enodiaks - a combination of two new clubs in the Raleigh/Durham area. Eno River is based out of Durham, NC. The Kodiaks are based out of Raleigh, NC and advertise themselves as being open to men no matter their sexual orientation.

At any rate, Eno River and Kodiaks were both low on numbers to they combined to become the "Enodiaks" to play Guilford.

It was immediately obvious who was the better team - Guilford basically ran in tries at will. To Eno's credit, they did muster a penalty and a lineout on the Guilford 5 meter line to drive it over for a try. Final score was something along the lines of 90-5.

Hopefully Guilford will capitalize on the excellent number of players they had for the game - many of whom looked rather good (but considering the opposition....).

I hope Eno River and Kodiaks continue to grow their clubs so that they can be competitive in the NCRU.

4/26 Elon Women's Round Robin

This was my final game of the season. Upon arrival at Elon's field I realized this was going to be a PROM DRESS game. I immediately told them I was going to have a hard time refereeing the game....as it was impossible to tell who was on what team as they were all wearing randomly colored dresses. The girls were all comfortable with that.

It turned out to be a reasonably enjoyable event - the crowd was really into it and the girls spent most of their time laughing.

An easy way to end the season......

3/29 UNC Chapel Hill B vs. UF B

I was appointed to this game after my Dan River v. Eno River game was cancelled due to lack of players.

Curtis Ethridge refereed the first game and stayed to watch me referee the B-side game. This game was trouble from the start for me - being watched by another ref - and both teams wearing blue! (One Light, One Navy) This was truly unfortunate for me as I continued to yell out BLUE ADVANTAGE! and the players kept asking me...who has advantage sir???? Well I tried to show that I was pointing to the team with advantage, but the players typically just listen to me when I say this, not look at me. At any rate, this rattled me and caused me to have a poor game all around - it really put me of my stride. I improved in the second half after having time to regroup - but still hesitated entirely too much in my officiating of the game.

I also continued my method of being in front of play in this game - I found myself exposed and obstructing on many occasions. I corrected this at half time per Curtis' instructions, and it has been corrected every since that discussion and discussion with my older brother Ben Whysall and Ivan Morton (both referees).

5/31 Cape Fear U19 Intrasquad Scrimmage

As I am living in Wilmington, NC at the moment, and have been playing touch with the Cape Fear Rugby club on Tues/Thurs, I offered to referee their U19 scrimmage. This was the first time these boys had played a game of sevens, and only the second time they had actually played rugby! It was great to help teach these boys rugby. The biggest problem they had was reacting to ADVANTAGE, when one of them knocked the ball on or committed a penalty they all tended to just stop and wait for me to do something after I said advantage instead of taking advantage of the situation! Towards the end of the day (They played three games) they started to get this though - and some great tries came from it. Some of the boys have rugby experience being from Australia / England, but the majority are Wilmington grown and learning the sport. There were many good athletes out there and I think Bob Bogen (the U19 coach) could really make these boys go somewhere.

3/22 Ruggerroast 2008

RuggerRoast 2008 was a small tournament hosted by a small club located in Dan River, VA - The Dan River Silverbacks. In the past many would have considered RuggerRoast to be a major tournament and Dan River to be a major rugby club, but in recent years Dan River's economy struggled and so did the rugby team. The club is currently in a rebuilding phase, and the right people seem to be in place to grow the club. Dan River are in the unique position that they are one of 4 clubs in North Carolina that own their own pitch (Raleigh Rugby, Charlotte Rugby, Cape Fear, Dan River) There is actually a major rugby dedicated rugby facility in Dan River, VA known as Angler park. The MBA World Champs and North Carolina Rugby Union tournaments are held at this facility. So, Dan River has an advantage most rugby clubs in America do not have - facilities. Hopefully Dan River will capitalize on this and continue to invest and grow their rugby club.

The teams participating in this tournament were Dan River, Southern Pines, Blacksburg, and Roanoke. None of these teams brought their first side, instead opting to each bring a team built up largely of their second side. I was charged with refereeing Dan River v. Blacksburg and Blacksburg v. Roanoke (final). In the lead up to this tournament, I received some refereeing advice from a former B-panel referee in regards to watching the offsides line. He recommended that instead of positioning myself in the pocket, that I position myself in front of the attack, and move as it came to me, rather than following the play. This method proved to be very effective policing the offside lines, but did cause me to miss some blatant hands in the ruck (knocking out of scrumhalves' hand). I have since gone back to positioning myself in the pocket as I have gained more experience in determining if a player is offside, but still position myself in front of play when near the try line.

In the first game of the morning Dan River played Blacksburg. Dan River competed well for about the first 15 minutes, scoring a try, but faded away for the rest of the game as Blacksburg piled on the score. Dan River managed a try in the last 20 minutes through their captain...and second row..... off of a really funny looking chip and chase. Final score Blacksburg 60 - 14 Dan River.

In the final Blacksburg out-played Roanoke, but not as much as they did Dan River. Roanoke seemed more interested in trying to influence my calls than play rugby. Their captain was very disrespectful - I probably should have reached for my pocket, but being the inexperienced referee I am - I did not. I allowed play to go on as this captain kept talking to me, and while I'm sure I was not being a biased referee, it sure did seem that the more this Roanoke captain talked to me - the more penalties against him I called. So, Blacksburg ran out 27-7 winners, clinching the tournament championship.

At the post-tournament social I feasted with some of my NC State buddies who were playing for Southern Pines on a massive amount of superb Dan River made wings. At this social I also met some of the Blacksburg guys for some constructive criticism - this included making my advantage calls much clearer and stressing to players that they need to tell me they want the penalty and not the advantage.

3/8 Charlotte High School Tournament

This was a great opportunity for me to referee a lower level of rugby and help "teach" younger players. I was told to be lenient with many of the players with law explanations, but be very strict on high tackles, late charges, and any kind of "dangerous" play.

Being a low level of rugby where I am allowed to do a bit of "teaching" was great for me as a new ref, because in explaining the laws to many of these young'uns, I further understand the intracicies of the laws and their purpose much better. The tournament was also a great opportunity for me to be watched by other referees and receive feedback. The feedback was great, I was told new methods for positioning and watching the offside line, offering commands to the players (tackler release, hands out, use it), signals, and much more. One of the most significant things I took from this tournament was facing North and South as much as possible - as this has helped me form my checklists in each facet of play (i.e Ruck....find the ball....won.....back up to pocket......check offsides.....continue).

I refereed this tournament with clubmate (NCSU) Joe Hogan, in what would be his first proper experience refereeing. Joe Hogan is on his way to Irag at the moment, so best of luck to him in his work for our country and Marines.

I was assigned to referee three B-side games and one U-15 game. (East Chapel Hill, Myers Park, Charlotte Catholic, VC Gold, Monroe U-15, Chapel Hill U-15) I was impressed with the number of players these clubs are getting, and I really hope these clubs continue to grow. It looks like there's a bright future for North Carolina and USA rugby with all these young rugby players coming through.