The Whistle Blower Competition Format. Sponsors. No more Preliminary Finals for 2104!

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1 The Whistle Blower Edition No.19 February Competition Format Sponsors No more Preliminary Finals for 2104! James Sherriff with the 2013 reserve Grade Preliminary Final between Cottesloe and Palmyra Inside this issue: Due to the introduction of a new National Competition starting in August, the 2014 season has been shortened. The format for the end of season will no longer see a Preliminary Final. The Season will kick off on 29 th March 2014 and there will only be one bye weekend during the season namely Easter Saturday 19 th April. President s Message 2 Editorial 3 ARU News 4 IRB News 5 Half Back Feed Rugby World Cup 7 Law Quiz 8 Editor: David Procopis dprocopis@hotmail.com Mobile: The final series format this year will only be a two week series. Week one will see 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd. Week two will see the winners of the week one matches playing each other to determine the 2014 Premier Grade winner. This will be in mid August. With the combined competitions involving 18 clubs, RWA will split the final series into two divisions: Div 1: Team finishing 1 st will stay play team finishing 4 th and team finishing 2 nd playing team finishing 3 rd. Div 2: Team finishing 5 th will play team finishing 8 th and team finishing 6 th playing team finishing 7 th.

2 Page 2 President s Message The Whistle Blower Welcome to Rugby 2014 another season and this one should be a cracker. We have already started with a couple of Western Force trial games against Samoa A and the Pampas XV and a Force A game also against Samoa A. The Western Force season opener is away in NSW on 23 February 2014, with many additions to the squad, including two international marquee players and five development players. I believe that bringing in South African players is the right move, which builds on WA s links with South Africa. Our many South African friends already in WA will be very happy. The East Coast Aussies too timid to cross the Nullarbor are the ones who will miss out! On behalf of the Association, I wish Coach Michael Foley and the squad the best of luck for The Sevens tournaments began with a strong WA contingent at the Darwin Hottest Sevens, with some great performances by our boys and girls, capped off by Graham Cooper scoring the final berth. An excellent start to what should be an exciting year for Coops, with a string of challenging appointments already lined up for him. I am sure you all join me in wishing him the best of luck with them. Also after a strong performance in Darwin, Tyler Miller has been selected by the ARU to referee at the National Women s Sevens competition in March. Many congratulations, Tyler. We are all looking forward to the Margaret River Sevens which is growing in status exponentially, with entries from the Malaysian and Thai national teams, plus other entries from outside WA. Scott Young, the ARU s new Pathway Service Manager Officiating will be joining us from Thursday 20 February for a busy weekend of workshops and rugby. The Association welcomes the appointment of Scott, who the ARU say will have a remit to enhance Australian match official representation on all levels and provide opportunities for male and female referees in the 15 and seven-a-side game. We are delighted to be welcoming him to WA so soon after his official appointment to the new role at the end of January Our Season Review document for 2013 will be issued in time for the Pre-Season Seminar. From this, we have adopted a new mission statement: Respect the Game. Respect the Call. We must respect the game by giving our best effort, doing what is expected of us. In turn, we need those around us to respect the calls that we make as match officials. If we are well prepared, fit physically and mentally, our law knowledge and game craft up to date, then we maximise our opportunity to make the call correctly. Then we can ask that it be respected. The vast majority of the rugby community will acknowledge that preparation and effort and will grant us that respect and even be willing to forgive those few occasions when the call is the wrong one. But if we are ill-prepared, then we cannot expect that response. So, respect the game and we can expect the rugby community to respect the call. So we look forward to The Association has a strong Exec which I am privileged to lead. The Senior and Junior CABs, led by Anthony O Shea and Bruce Dunn, are also strong and full of ideas and enthusiasm. They have already been busy, as has our hard-working Administrator and Honorary Secretary, Julie Skiba. Our aims are high and the challenges will not be easy, but I am sure it will be a great year! I would also like to add my best wishes for season 2014 to Dr. Russel Perry (Life Member), who is doing a great job as Chairman of RugbyWA, to Andrew Hill and his Community Rugby team and to Martin Becker and the RugbyWA Juniors team. I look forward to working with them once more. I wish you all a Happy New Year of Rugby with many thanks to our Newsletter Editor, David Procopis. Yours in Rugby, Brendan Fitzgerald

3 Page 3 Rio 2016 A Great Opportunity The Whistle Blower Keeping her eye on the ball is Tyler Miller who has been selected to officiate at the National Women s Sevens Tournament in March this year. The ARU is actively encouraging the recruitment of more female referees so that Australia will have a good representation of female referees for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. All referees for the Women s Sevens games will be female. We all hope to see you there Tyler. Editorial David Procopis

4 FROM THE ARU page 4 The ARU Match Official Strategic Plan will focus on increasing the number of referees between the age of 25 and 35. Pictured left are the young guns who officiated at the 2013 U15 Grade Grand Final: Kyle Christie, Matt McBride and Ross Francis Australian Rugby announced it will increase the number of match officials nationally by 20% over the next five years, with a particular focus on recruiting women and increasing the number of referees aged between 25 and 35, as part of its first ever Match Official Strategic Plan. The number of match officials across Australia has increased steadily since 2008, but Australian representation internationally has decreased from five referees at the 1999 Rugby World Cup to just one at present an all-time low. Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver said increasing the number of match officials or referees at all levels of the game will help expand general participation, because without referees, games can t happen. Referees provide a service to facilitate games and we acknowledge that we need to do more to improve our focus on the recruitment and development of match officials from the grass roots level right through to elite referees, Mr Pulver said. This draft plan is part of that, in addition to the recent appointment of former international referee Scott Young to the position of Pathway Services Manager Officiating, who will oversee the plan s implementation. Scott Young said that he will be aiming to reverse a worrying trend that sees 27% of referees aged between 15 and 25 drop significantly to 8% between the ages of 25 and 35. We want to do more to recruit and retain match officials into the 25 to 35 year age group, by targeting former players, making the most of new competitions such as the National Rugby Championship as important development pathways, and by taking a national approach to improve coaching quality and coaching nationally, Mr Young said. Other initiatives included in Australian Rugby s Match Official Strategic Plan include establishing an online education resource for all match officials and taking a national approach to identify talent, selection and coaching for match officials.

5 FROM THE IRB Page 5 Six Nations 2014 Referees Alain Rolland (IRFU, 65 Tests) Steve Walsh (ARU, 54 Tests) Nigel Owens (WRU, 50 Tests) Wayne Barnes (RFU, 49 Tests) Craig Joubert (SARU, 47 Tests) Romain Poite (FFR, 31 Tests) Chris Pollock (NZRU, 15 Tests) Jérôme Garces (FFR, 14 Tests) Jaco Peyper (SARU, 14 Tests) Pascal Gauzere (FFR, 10 Tests) John Lacey (IRFU, six Tests) IRB match officials gathered in Dubai last month to hone physical conditioning and game management preparations ahead of a busy year of international Rugby, kicking off with the 2014 RBS 6 Nations. The camp provided the opportunity for the IRB Match Official Selection Committee to reaffirm the standards and values that officials will need to attain to be selected for Rugby s World Cup and benchmark against tough physical and game management criteria. With ball in play time higher than ever before and players in all positions continuing to reach new standards of speed, strength and high-intensity aerobic running, the IRB and its Member Unions are committed to achieving optimal levels of physical fitness to assist the world s top referees make correct decisions under what is often intense physical and mental pressure. During an average Test match, referees cover 7km and undertake a massive number of accelerations and decelerations. Heart rates can be in the high intensity zone for up to 50 per cent of total match time, which is comparable to officials in other team sports, such as soccer. Performance criteria included a standing 40-metre sprint, repeated sprint, yo-yo intermittent recovery (level one) and body composition assessments. With GPS data playing an increasing role in elite sports performance, each referee s match and training data is recorded and assessed in order to benchmark performance, identify focus areas and assist the development of bespoke training programmes to enhance game preparation and performance. As with teams, we are building towards Rugby World Cup 2015 and the main performance objective for the group is to ensure clear and consistent officiating. Our selection criteria are based on a strategy of selecting the current high-level performers underpinned by a growth philosophy towards having the best match official team available for selection for RWC The international Rugby calendar begins with the 2014 RBS 6 Nations Championship. The 11 referees selected to take charge of matches in the Championship represent a range of experience. The world s most capped active referee is Ireland s Alain Rolland and he will make his 66th and final appearance when Wales plays France in Cardiff on February 21. Steve Walsh of New Zealand and Wales Nigel Owens have already passed the 50-Test mark, while England s Wayne Barnes will join that exclusive club when he referees Ireland v Wales in Dublin on February 8.

6 IRB Announces Non Verbal Communication from Referee to Half Back at Scrum Feed page 6 In a minor revision to the current protocol surrounding the ongoing scrum engagement global trial, the International Rugby Board has confirmed that referees will use non-verbal communication to indicate to the scrum-half when the ball can be thrown into the scrum. Up to now as part of the scrum trial, the referee has told the scrum-half that the scrum is ready for the putin by the use of the phrase yes nine. But following an initial review, including consultation with national coaches and referee managers, it has been decided that referees will adopt a non-verbal communication to scrum-halves for the introduction of the ball. This is in accordance with the relevant law (20.5 Throwing the Ball Into the Scrum). The change is effective immediately and will include this week s Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup matches in the northern hemisphere (January 9-12). It will also include the next rounds of other elite competitions, including the Top 14 in France (January 24), Aviva Premiership in England (February 7-9) and the Rabo Direct Pro 12 in other parts of Europe (February 7-9). As with the original protocol, it is up to individual Unions to decide whether this change will be adopted at levels below elite Rugby. A non verbal command from the referee to the half back to feed the scrum

7 Page 7 Rugby World Cup 2015 The Whistle Blower England will face the Oceania 1 qualifier at Twickenham in the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2015 The 13 match venues and host cities selected are: Twickenham Stadium (London), Wembley Stadium (London), Olympic Stadium (London), Millennium Stadium (Cardiff), Manchester City Stadium (Manchester), St James Park (Newcastle), Elland Road (Leeds), Leicester City Stadium (Leicester), Villa Park (Birmingham), Kingsholm Stadium (Gloucester), stadiummk (Milton Keynes), Brighton Community Stadium (Brighton) and Sandy Park (Exeter). Taking the Game to 10 cities across the country enables tournament organiser England Rugby 2015 to showcase the Game to a large audience across the length and breadth of the country. The match schedule will see 25 matches played in dedicated Rugby venues, seven in multi-event stadia and 16 in football venues. This blend of stadia will provide a variety of Rugby World Cup match day experiences and more than two million opportunities for fans to engage with one of the world s most recognisable major sports events. The tournament will open at Twickenham Stadium on Friday, September 18, 2015, where England will face Oceania 1, confirmed at the close of the qualification process in In addition to a selection of pool matches, Twickenham Stadium will also host two quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the Final on October 31. Two quarter-finals will also be played in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium and the Bronze Final will be hosted at the Olympic Stadium. Australia s Games Wed 23rd September: Australia v Oceania 1 at Cardiff Sun 27th September: Sat 3rd October : Sat 10th October: Final 31 October: Australia v Play Off Winner at Birmingham Australia v England at Twickenham Australia v Wales at Twickenham Twickenham

8 2014 Calendar of Events 8th March Pre season seminar 24th March WA Rugby Union Referees Association 29th March Season begins 7th April Contact Details: AdministratorWARURA Phone: Referee Web Site: 28th April 12th May 26th May 9th June 29th June 14th July 4th August 9th August 16th August Mid Season Seminar Pre Finals Meeting Semi Finals Grand Finals Law Quiz Question: A goal kicker places his ball on the kicking tee and also places a marker a few metres in front of the kicking tee as an aiming reference. Is this permitted? Answer: The Law permits the use of a kicking tee or sand to elevate the ball so that it can be kicked. No other equipment, sand or other implement may be used to assist the kicker. IRB Clarification 1, 2013.