9/19/2009 Coast Guard Academy @ UMASS Amherst

In beautiful conditions these two teams played this highly aggressive game.

The game started with Coast Guard working their way down the field and kicking a penalty. Amherst responded by muscling their way over the line after a nice break in loose play.

Amherst then took an interception which was "knocked forward" about 10 meters and recovered under the posts.

Coast Guard then used their fitness and large forwards to create a break and offload out of the tackle to dot down at half time.

HT Amherst 12 - 10 Coast Guard

In the 2nd half Amherst and Coast Guard traded tries again - Coast guard scoring a nice one off a maul formed from a pick and go near the goal line. Amherst also scored a penalty kick.

Late in the second half Amherst scored another try to widen the gap to 27-17, final score.

Through out the first 50 minutes of the game the penalty count increased at a steady rate with the two sides struggling to grasp the concept of zone entry and maintaining their feet. This resulted in a high penalty count and stop start affair. There needed to be a firm explanation...along with a yellow card...much earlier than 50 minutes in the game. A yellow card was given to a Coast Guard player after a firm warning about breakdown infringements at around 50 minutes. Following the yellow the breakdowns cleaned up fairly well.

I also yellow carded a player for dangerous play, he took a player out in the air following a kick off. The coast guard coaches thought this was harsh seeing that this was the first dangerous tackle of the game. What the coaches failed to realize was what I heard the player say on the way to the kick off "If we're going to lose this game I'm at least going hurt somebody." Now, as a referee, I probably should I have said something when I overheard this - I did not - and the player proceeded to commit dangerous play and be sin binned.

I also struggled with the scrums in this game, they were uniquely unstable, wheeling and skewing every time. I tried again and again to correct this, even penalizing some boring - no improvement. After that game I found out one of the Coast Guard props could not hold his weight in the scrum well at all. After reviewing previous Coast Guard match reports I discovered other referees had a problem as well. As it turns out, despite the Coast Guards very athletic looking front row - they could not hold their weight well. As a referee, I need to learn that looks can be deceiving, there are bad fit props, bad props arent all overweight or too skinny for the job.

9/19/2009 Dartmouth Women @ UMASS Amherst Women

Dartmouth have very well written recap of the match here:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwrc/SCHEDRES/F09sum.html

This game was a real pleasure to referee with the ladies being very receptive to my instructions, helping to keep the game's penalty count very low and give a good flow to the game.

The scoreline indicates UMASS were dominant, but Dartmouth did compete well - they just could not finish their drives.

I had problems in this women's game with positioning and running lines as I normally do for women's matches. This is something to continue to work on. I got in the way of a defender once, and slightly impeded a pass from a line out. In the lineout I had expected the Scrumhalf to throw the ball before I got by her, unfortunately I had moved so early that I slightly impeded the UMASS scrumhalf's view.

9/12/2009 Williams College vs. Williams Alumni

Played on a nice field in mild rainy conditions.

This was the Williams RFC first game setting of the fall, the University only began having classes this week.

As a result, many of the Williams B side were playing their first game of rugby ever. Prior to the game everyone participated in a short training session to get everyone on the same page. This enabled the referee to explain the laws at the breakdown and practice skills which are so often lost to new players (illegal zone entry, staying on your feet, hands in, scrum safety, lineout safety).

This short training session prior to the game made for a very well played affair - considering the skill levels of those new players involved. After 20 minutes the score was only 3-0 to Williams A. Williams were knocking on the try line's door for quite awhile but the touch line proved a strong defender as two corner tries were called back for a foot stepping out.

After 20 minutes there was a break to go over some aspects of the game for the new players. We continued play for aonther 20 minutes, "half time," then played a final 40 minute period.

As the game wore on Williams managed to string together some consistent pick and go phases to grind down the field. Williams picked up 4 tries with this tactic of offloading and quick pickups to make a final score of 27-0.

Following the game I went to the social with the teams. They held a fantastic kangaroo court and song session. I was even able to teach this college kids a little bit about rugby songs, teaching them Yogi Bear and some new lyrics to a personal favorite of mine: I used to work in chicago. It was a lot of fun to feel like I was playing rugby in college again, being idiotic and singing rude songs.

Here are some samples of my favorite songs:

9/5/2009 Colgate University @ Cornell

Traveled out to Ithaca, NY for an awesome day of rugby. Beautiful weather, great setting, and two teams ready to run hard.

Overall, I thought the game went well but I question a few of the calls I made.

Accidental Obstruction v. Full Penalty Obstruction

A stupid LATERAL kick, almost offside. Followed up with a kick downfield I thought it went out much sooner than the touch judge and overruled him. Looking back, he did have the better view, I should have let him go....but I think I may have been concerned by the kick offsides I wasn't in the position to be sure of.

Yellow card for repeated infringements - illegal zone entry. I had told the Colgate side again and again, captain understood the infringement, but struggled to explain it to his teammates. I had 3 illegal zone entries early in the game, warned the captain, and it went away. Midway through the second half they began happening again (defending on 22). Again, 2 penalties then told the captain. Another illegal zone entry followed. In hindsight, maybe it was marginal, but the players number was 19, and he was the most perpendicular to the sideline entering the ruck...to the bin he went. Cornell had already came back into the game befor ehte yellow card, and did not score again until after the player returned to the game, so it had no effect.

I also carded a cornell player for diving straight down ont he player...dangerous foul play...last minute of the game. Needed to do so? maybe he learned.

I also did not feel very fit for the game. Most Crossfit workouts are 20-30 minutes. At the 20-30 minute mark today, I felt my fitness catching up to me. Maybe some modifications need to be made to my training.

8/29/09 Liberty Cup 2009 - NYPD - FDNY - Fort Bragg - Camp Lejeune

I was very very lucky to be invited to referee this event – it was a great pleasure and an event I will remember refereeing for a very long time.

Here was the tournament format and schedule:

FDNY v. Fort Bragg
NYPD v. Camp Lejuene
FDNY v. Camp Lejuene
NYPD v. Fort Bragg
Camp Lejuene v. Fort Bragg

I was appointed the head referee for this event. I had one Canadian referee, one military referee, and one Met NY referee at my disposal. I assigned myself the FDNY v. Fort Bragg and NYPD v. Fort Bragg games. Every game had a team of 3 working it.

To start off, I want to describe the trip to the field…Randall’s island…overlooking the Hudson river and Manhattan.

One other referee, Fort Bragg, and myself stayed at the Hotel Edison one block from Times Square. We met outside the hotel to wait for the Fort Bragg van to pick us up and take us out to Randall’s island. It eventually arrived and we all crowded into the 15 passenger van only to realize we had about 1/8th a tank of gas and didn’t really know how to get there! At this stage one of the tourney organizers got on the phone with our NYPD rugby brethren…..and the NYPD said they would come help us out. Little did we know what kind of help that was on our way….

A few minutes later an unmarked cop car arrived, the cop stuck his head out the window and said “follow me!” He proceeded to flick on his siren and take us blearing through the streets of manhattan! Traffic and red lights were no match for us and the NYPD! Cars moved out of our way like Moses and the red sea! I now think I am of the privileged few to have experienced this…it was like a scene straight out of a movie.

We arrived at the field around 1130. DRASH had tents set up for every team and Matt Godek had kit specially made for every team! Including the referee team!
Before the first game I ran over to see the referees for the NASC sevens. This included the national panel of 7s referees as well as a number of Met NY referees serving as assistant referees and in-goal judges.

I had my pregame / equipment chat with the teams. Because of the level of these teams (D4-D3 men) I decided to make clear recent clarifications of law laid down by the IRB:

Maul obstruction
Productive hands / diving over
No collapsing mauls
Matching numbers in lineouts

We moved onto the captain chat and went for kick off. It was a close game with it coming to a draw around 10 minutes into the 2nd half…but following that Bragg put in a few extra tries to widen the gap and win handily.

Now I have a few notes from the game:

A couple Met NY referees whom I met at Saranac Lake watched the game and had some great observations for me. They said that when I would blow for a penalty…after my whistle had gone a few things would generally keep going on that I missed….because when I made my mark for the penalty I had this habit of looking down at my foot at the mark…instead of surveying the field. The mark’s not going to move…I don’t even need to look down at my foot once.

Also, he observed that I was maybe getting a little bit too close to the breakdowns to allow myself to have consistent full field vision. This is a habit that I have been trying to eliminate so it is good to know I had somewhat gone back to old bad habits.

Also, I think I need to make myself a mental pregame checklist. When I referee from week to week I typically clearly remember what to work on and watch for, but when I have weekend breaks between games I sometimes forget and in my pregame warmups I forget what I really want to watch for and improve in my game. Recommendations?

Game 2: NYPD vs. Fort Bragg

By this time of the day (4 PM) the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. I tried applying some of the tips from earlier in the day and recall it making me feel more comfortable…it even made me catch a couple sly punches. I was very proud of the way I handled this punch up as I had struggled managing them earlier this spring (see old reports). As soon as I saw the prop tussle begin I blew a very loud long whistle, called the two players over and sent them both off to cool off for 5 minutes for “police brutality.” Both teams replaced their front rowers and sent off different players from the pitch to maintain contested scrums.

I should also comment that the scrums were quite…marginal…this game. The Bragg boys were murdering the police scrum even to the extent that I told the Bragg boys to back off in the scrum so we could get some flow to the game. At the start of the game I had a hard time believing how much the NYPD scrum was buckling even to the extent of penalizing and free kicking Bragg for foot up and boring. They may have indeed been doing this, but the problem only went away when I finally took the captain aside and told them to back off.

This game had similar score lines and events to the first (FDNY, Bragg) with the NYPD coming within 3 points of Bragg in the 2nd half only for Bragg to run away late in the show.

During this game I had a first, my Adidas boots of about two years finally gave out. I recall my feet landing feeling particularly soft and slippery for a reason I could not figure out during the game…only did I realize afterwards that my entire left foot was basically sliding out on the turf!

For the last game of the day Bragg played Lejeune, Lejeune came out the winners and therefore Liberty Cup 2009 champions. They had really taken it to all the opposition on the day and were clearly the fittest and most well rounded side. Bragg may have had a few more skillful players, but Lejuene certainly won with the fitness and organization game.

From here I was invited to the NY All Star sevens referee dinner at Connoly’s pub in manhattan. It was great to meet, eat, and drink with our country’s top sevens referees and assessors.

Since my boots had split in such spectacular fashion the day before I made no attempt to AR on Sunday despite being asked – instead going for a delightful English breakfast in Greenwich village
From there I hopped on the subway and went across the footbridge to Randall’s island to watch the rest of the sevens rugby. West won the Men and Northeast won the women’s division with some very entertaining games. Following the tournament I had the opportunity to meet and drink with a number of USA rugby celebrities including Dan Payne and Al Caravelli on our way to BBR…the tournament bar. I stayed for one drink, bullshitted a little, and caught the train to grand central and back up the Hudson river home. What a great weekend.

8/15/09 Bocephus 10s - Hartford, CT

I traveled down to Hartford, CT for a hot hot day of 10s rugby. My GF was up for a visit, anxious to see me refereeing again for some reason….my #1 fan.

We had 4 referees, 10 teams and……3 fields???? 3 fields??? Not only did they for some reason insist on using 3 fields, two of the 3 fields had aobut 36# inch grass on it two days before! And it hadn’t been cleared! At any rate, it made for very soft ground on those two fields, but soft ground does not make for fast running…which 10s is supposed to promote.

At any rate, I did enjoy the rugby I refereed on this day. My first game was UCONN B vs. New Haven. I found myself calling a number of penalties against UCONN for not releasing. I also pinged them for not being back 10 on a lineout…after I yelled get back about 5 times with no response. On a side note, I thought I was very strict with my “not releasing” calls for the entire day….but 10s seems conducive to the penalty. There’s a lot more one on one contact in this than sevens/fifteens with support significantly slower to arrive. In the end, New Haven blanked the UCONN killer bs.

My second game was Western Conn (D3/D4) vs. Dartmouth (top D1 college). Now I was not prepared for the indiscipline of Western Conn, they would just flagrantly be offside and have their hands in ruck with no abandon despite my communication. I was simply appalled by this lack of respect for the laws….It seems I have not dealt with a team at this level in some while. At any rate, their flagrant illegality did not produce any stolen ball for them or really slow up Dartmouth…nevertheless….Dartmouth could not stop whining about it…and it really annoyed me. I certainly tightened up on Western Conn after I realized they were not going to listen to my communication, but even after Western Conn cut out their illegalities, Dartmouth continued to whine about some very silly things…especially considering the score…some teams just whine I guess.

My 3rd game…..I skipped. The long grass had wreaked havoc on my ankle to cause pain I’d never felt before. I retired to ice and stretching to prepare for the late afternoon final.

The final was UCONN Alumni vs. White Plains…both of whom were undefeated throughout the tournament. White Plains were the hotly tipped winners, but one if their key players went off injured in the first few minutes of the game, making for a very tight affair. The game went to a draw..10-10…I really wasn’t happy when white plains missed their easy conversion to win. We went into sudden death overtime...thank god it wasn’t penalty kicks again. UCONN made a great break out wide only to be tackled near in goal. Ruck Formed, defensive line formed, I’m in my normal position….and the phase runner decides to run straight into my back. Now, I don’t think he needed to do that…I think it’s really possible he just wanted the scrum for touching the referee with the ball.

Take a look at this video where this player used that law to his advantage:


One other key point I want to make about the final is a call I made on the UCONN Alumni Try line. White plains produced a strong attack but UCONN made a strong tackle and stripped the ball…only to then be collapsed down and driven further towards their goal line. I went for a penalty to UCONN for collapsing the ruck (considering they had seemed to win the ball fair and square) but looking back on it…I think this is another situation where I would have preferred going to a scrum – in this case to White Plains. I don’t think the UCONN player was really intentinonally collapsed, I think he was knocked in the ruck, resulting in a eventual buried ball with Plains driving forward à Plains scrum. Oh well, going forward, need to make sure I give this more thought and not just go straight for a gut penalty.

One more thing…..at our summer society meeting the weekend following this game somebody referred to White Plains as “White Complains.” I found this quite humorous because I do recall a number of totally nonsensical “offside” comments from their side. I mean, situations where there seriously could have never been offside…..they really do just like to complain about nothing. An apt name.

Overall it was a good tournament, I was happy to get more practice with my team of 3 in the final (thanks boys) and get to see fellow refs again.

8/1/2009 - 8/2/2009 Saranac Lake CAN-AM Tournament

This was a fantastic tournament to be involved with. Over 100 teams, daily 75 degree weather, beautiful Adirondack surroundings, and a small mountain resort town totally taken over by rugby for the weekend...I couldn't ask for better.

I drove up Friday evening straight from work only to be welcomed by a hotel on the lake with a parking lot of full of rugby referees and beer. After all, the Old Boys pool play (over 35s, 45s, and 50s divisions) was that day, all of the referees for that part of the tournament needed to recover somehow.

It was great to meet up with many referees I had met before at previous events: Texas referees from Rucktoberfest (Boone, NC), MARFU referees from the Pittsburgh U19, and of course, plenty of NY State and New England Referees. From their we made the responsible decision to go to the "watering hole," for what turned out to be the bar for the weekend. Ended up turning in around 11-12 on friday night with some late night italian food.
For referees, Saranac Lake tournament organizers do it right, they provide an AWESOME breakfast....I even managed to eat paleo both mornings. Delicious eggs, bacon, sausage, and plenty of fruit. Now for the catch, you HAVE to go to breakfast, before 630, to even be assigned your games. On saturday morning (following the watering hole) one referee did not make it and had all of his games surrendered.

My schedule for the day was as follows:

8 AM Lake Placid - Women - Doylestown 22 v. 7 Hudson Valley

My guess is I was assigned this because I'm a first year saranac referee.....I got an 8 am game about 30 minutes away in Lake Placid...meaning I was very lucky to have packed my kit before breakfast so I could get there in time.

At any rate, I arrived, warmed up, almost forgot my watches, then made my way to the field. I did my chats with the teams and got ready for kick off only for "SIR! Where's the ball?".......We as referees were provided a ball for each field...I conveniently forgot mine at the ref's tent. So....I pointed to the first reasonable ball I saw on the sideline...good thing too, I definetely wouldve gone to court for that (another referee in placid did. He stupidly went back to the tent for the ball! silly scottish boy.... all the other refs turned him in).
Now for my performance.... I was not happy. It was 8 am and I was probably a bit rusty/tired, but I could tell the ladies/coaches were not too...impressed. At any rate, I took my typical approach to this game, trying to manage the penalties out of the game and doing the best job I could. Apparently the ladies thought I was a tad inconsistent and did not give clear signals... I just thought I was managing the game and infringements the best I could - maybe they wanted me to blow my whistle a lot more...maybe they were a bit hungover, who knows. Anyway, the game was clearly won by Doylestown and I do recall one error I'm unhappy with. I played a penalty advantage to Doylestown....they proceeded to get go forward ball and "not release" I immediately awarded the "no advantage" to Doylestown only for Hudson to be convinced it was their penalty and argue.....Doyles quicktapped and ran in a score. So, maybe I shoudl have been clearer, maybe the opposition was just stupid, I just wish they would have been back to have a fair shot at defending.

I also did not mention the field marking...there was a yellow line and then about 2 meters further was a white line (lacrosse). A girl almost ran out the back because the lining issues (she got it down just in time). It caused confusions for teams all day (defensively) and may have helped and hindered teams.

Next game:

11 AM Lake Placid - Social - Blackhorse Alumni 27 - 15 Akron

After the 8 am game frusturations I decided no more gray area in my refereeing...I'm going to be a hard ass. I went into this game with the mindset...I'm going to manage..but I'm not going to let anything fly and I am giong to set a very strict standard in the first phases of the game. And so I did....in one of the first few breakdowns a Blackhorse player went straight into the ruck off his feet, sealing off...I pinged him, and Akron kicked the penalty straight in front of the posts. From then on, I probably gave 3-4 penalties for the same offense. I also awarded quite a few other penalties, there was definetly a high count for this game. I didnt like it...I was blowing my whislte more than normal..but the players did not seem to complain...I would like to think they just tried to clean up their act. In sum, the game was close, 20-15 at the end with Akron on a strong attack to score....only to have their last past intercepted and ran in 70 meters to score (making it 27-15).

I was also happy with my scrum management with this game, I really was able to pick out teh good binds and problem areas. When Akron tried to whip wheel (pull), I picked up on it immediately, knew exactly what had happened, and penalized the offender...no question.

Also, this game had one of the funniest rugby moments I have ever experienced. White was being jersey tackled and was trying to wrestle his way out of it....the jersey ended up pulled over his and only around his arms....he was still going forward with the ball and tackled. Akron went to try and strip the ball from him...the player had released the ball, but his shirt had not! the ball was totally enveloped in the shirt. After a couple tugs Akron (Blue) pulled the jersey (filled with the ball) from the player. He then proceeded to take it forwarded and get tackled...Ruck formed...ball at the back of the ruck (still in the jersey). The halfback then takes the ball (jersey and all) and passes to the flyhalf to play! By this point the whole sideline is clapping at the hilarity of the situation. The flyhalf looks at me with a deer in the headlights look...what do I do??? At that stage, I blew my whistle and awarded a blue scrum. I do wish teh flyhalf took it and kept playing though...would have been pretty funny especially had he kicked it.

Here is a similar situation, mine went a phase further:



3 PM Saranac Lake - Social - Lockport v. Hudson Valley

This game was a close one, Bright Green vs. Bright Green, but I had a very good time refereeing it. I had the same attitude for this game as the last but the penalty count for this was significantly lower...I think my management became more effective.

I did have a strange issue in this game, both teams were anticipating my engage and leaning in. That took some management and made me remember a previous coaching point..my cadence tends to be crouch, touch, pausengage. It's more like 3 steps, my pauseengage transition is very quick. I changed it during the game, I warned the players to wait until my ENGAGE, and then was forced to use my whistle.

Now, I recall a few other memorable moments:

A 50 plus guy, playing hooker this game, made a crossfield kick under pressure....to his son on the wing. I unfortunately could tell that his son was offside, but man I should have really rewarded the effort since the kick actually landed in the kids arms, an amazing feat for a 50 plus hooker, lol.

There was also a charged clearance kick that tipped up into the air in goal, three players jumped in the air for it, 1 Hudson (defending) and 2 Lockport (attacking), none of them gained possession and it came down into a pile beneath them all. I was right on top the situation and saw lockport hands on the ball as it went to ground....but a hudson back/side was also on it. My decision, given clearly and quickly, was a try for Lockport. A very close call to make, was it right? I can't be sure, but it's what I thought in that moment.

Overall a bottom bracket fun social game, now on to the post game.

Saturday Evening

The New England Referee Society put on a spectacular dinner (paleo qualified). Lots of steak, chicken, salad, and beer. We drank plenty of a new favorite beer of mine, Lake Placid Brewing Company's Ubu Ale.
At any rate, we got on with a highly entertaining pirate themed kangaroo court. It was kept to a very reasonable length, only 4 cases, we funneled some beverages, and made our way back to the watering hole. Plenty of shenanigans went down, but I shall not reveal......here's a pic. We returned around 130-2 that night.

Sunday Morning

Again, up for the 630 AM breakfast. I took a supply of B vitamins and emergenC the night before to fight my hangover...with some degree of success I think. Unfortunately, I found out that when I turned my ankle at the bar last night it did actually get hurt. I was limping all morning, but visited the physio at the fields, got my ankle wrapped up, used my usual braces, and got to it.

9 AM - Saranac Lake - Akron 20 v. Old Gold 7

It started raining right as the game started, but not too badly. Akron totally murdered the Old Gold scrum in this game, managing to drive back and steal many of them.

I was very fortunate in this game to have two assistant referees, especially considering my mobility because of my hurt ankle. I have had assitants before, but I never really felt I used them. In this game, however, I really noticed myself referring and glancing at my assistants for their opinion's on knocks/forwards and lineout infringements. Maybe they were faster and closer to play than other assistants I have had, but I felt very comfortable referring and working with my assistants on this game.
Overall, I thought the game went very smoothly, but I disagree with one of my calls. Akron carried the ball forward, was tackled, and made a poor ball placement. Akron and Old Gold came in and formed the ruck, but the ball was in the middle where the half back could not reach. Old Gold drove hard and was turned in the ruck when driving over and kiled the ball. I penalized Old Gold for illegal zone entry / in the side but the right call there was a stuck ball...scrum to Gold as they were actually driving forward.

I also had a referee coach watching this game and he pointed out that within 5 minutes Gold committed 4 red zone penalties (red zone being inside their 22). This warranted a talking to and formal admonishment, but I failed to have this chat.

This brought to an end my Saranac Refereeing for 2009. From here I retired to a shower and headed to the premier field.
The rest of the day proved eventful, including a nasty downpour during the over 35s final....Schenectady lost 0-3...a dour affair. The weather improved after the over 35s final for the rest of the day, providing for some good rugby.

Overall, this was a great event, I met many referees, met some old playing friends, and made many more.