Meet The Ref

Playing/reffing experience: Played from the age of 6 in Hertfordshire, starting senior rugby at 16, then played at Swansea Uni and for the Swansea Uplands club while studying; before moving to Berkshire upon graduation, where I spent 10 yrs playing first team rugby for Tadley (as wing/full-back). I had completed a reffing course with the WRU while studying in Swansea (primarily to see what I could get away with as a player!), but then when I tore my ACL – and didn’t know whether I’d be able to play again – I completed the RFU refereeing course during my post-op rehab. I did return to playing, but soon a combination of fatherhood and increasing work commitments made training twice a week and playing on a Saturday impossible – so reffing was an obvious choice: manage training & fitness to fit in with other commitments, whilst still staying involved with the game and challenging myself to improve each time I cross the whitewash.

Off the pitch: as well as father to two girls (neither of whom show any interest in rugby), I’m FD of a Medical Technology company based in Reading.

Other reffing duties: I’m currently count myself both lucky & honoured to be Chair of the Berkshire Society and I’m also Secretary of the Southern Federation (comprising Berks, Bucks, Hants & Oxon RefSocs).

Refereeing highlights: through refereeing, I became a volunteer at RWC2015, where I had the (not so) arduous task of helping RWC execs get to the right matches & functions, from their 5-star hotel base in Kensington – though it did mean I became known as ‘the bus-whisperer’ and I was able to get into Twickenham for the final!  Separately, thanks to Google and a couple of emails, I managed to sort myself appointments with the New York/New Jersey RefSoc when on a work-trip to the US – I ended up covering two games at West Point Military Academy (ranked in the top 10 of US colleges/universities for rugby), one as AR1 in a Team of 3 for their 1st XV fixture and another reffing their 2nd XV.