The most physical of sports – the easiest to referee?
In the third part of our series focusing on refereeing, Thomas Conway speaks with rugby officials TOMMY MOYLAN and JOHN LILLIS on why respect has managed to remain a key part of the game, and how there is a clear pathway of assessment and progression through the ranks.
Even the most combustible rugby games, the most heated and hard-hitting contests with the most serious season-defining consequences, rarely tip over the edge into ill-discipline. There will be the odd red card, yes. There might be some persistent fouling, for sure. But only occasionally does a match descend into chaos, and only occasionally does a referee find him or herself the subject of verbal abuse.
Interactions between rugby players and referees are akin to a form of international diplomacy. Exchanges are usually brisk and forthright, calm and explanatory. If the language wouldn’t be acceptable at a meeting of the UN Security Council, then it isn’t acceptable on a rugby field. What’s more, it doesn’t matter where the field is or who the players are, the integrity of the game is based upon respect, and respect equal’s discipline.
Such has been the experience of Nenagh man Tommy Moylan, who has spent more than fifteen years at the helm of games across the province. His decision to embark upon a career in refereeing followed a similar plot-line to most - retirement from playing opened up the opportunity to contribute to the game in a different way, to remain at the centre of the action while still maintaining a certain distance.
Interestingly, Tommy began life as a referee at a time when Munster were thriving at senior level. It was the mid-2000s - the era of O’Gara and Stringer, Anthony Foley lifting the Heineken Cup, immortalised memories under the roof in Cardiff.
The refereeing situation was also in a good place, with plenty of officials trained and ready to cater for the rising level of playing participants. The popularity of rugby in Munster was at an all-time high, and this was reflected in the high number of referees. The expectations were significant. This wasn’t just a weekend pastime. Each and every referee was given the opportunity to learn from the best, as Tommy explains.
“As a group of referees, we’d meet every Tuesday night, and generally we’d take one aspect of the game - it could be the scrum, the lineout, the breakdown - and then a presentation would be given on that aspect by one of our international referees.
“So, at one point for example, we would have had George Crowley, Johnny Lacey, and Andy Grace - all international referees. And either one of those guys, or a maybe senior referee in the AIL, would be tasked with giving that presentation each week.
“Afterwards then, there would be an open questions-and-answers session, and we’d be invited to discuss issues which might have happened in games the previous weekend - was there a point of law of which you weren’t sure? Did something happen that you wanted to raise? And then the more experienced referees would have been able to advise you.”
Respect
The support structures remain in place, but the province, and indeed the country, is now in the midst of a serious refereeing crisis. From a rugby perspective, Tommy attributes the current shortage of referees to logistical factors. He hasn’t noticed any deterioration when it comes to player-discipline or side-line behaviour, which contrasts to other sports in which the abuse suffered by referees appears to have increased.
Respect remains fundamental, and it percolates down from the very top level. There are, however, other elements of modern-day contact sport which have rendered the role of a referee even more important, particularly in rugby. In recent years, a series of revelations surrounding concussion has cast a dark shadow over various high-impact sports.
Concussion has been described as a “hidden epidemic”; it has been the subject of a damning Hollywood biopic; it has crushed dreams and produced nightmares in which young athletes have tragically lost their lives. World Rugby and other sporting bodies have woken up to the gravity of the issue and introduced stringent safety protocols, and referees at grassroots level are now acutely aware of the potential dangers inherent to their sport. Size matters, and Tommy witnesses this first-hand.
“It’s not just rugby - you take GAA, you take the Limerick senior hurling team at the moment. Size has become huge,” Moylan said.
“You have lads who are maybe, 15 or 16 stone, able to run 100 metres in close to ten seconds. And it’s the same in rugby. These are young athletes, they’re in the gym, they’re working out, they’re bulking up, so the hits are getting a lot more serious, a lot harder, and obviously a huge emphasis has been placed on safety over the past few years, particularly around head injuries and concussion. World Rugby are trying to eliminate that at the moment, to eliminate dangerous contact, and you can see that coming through in the guidance being given to us as referees.”
There are still plenty of swashbuckling sidesteps and sprints to the corner, but international rugby is now exclusively a big man’s game. The average weight of the Irish backline lies somewhere in the region of fifteen stone. Certain players, such as Bundee Aki and James Lowe, weigh-in north of sixteen. And then you have American Football. When the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals took to the field last Sunday in the Superbowl, spectators were treated to a blitz of lung-bursting sprints and heavy artillery collisions. One of the Rams players, 40-year-old Andrew Whitworth, measures 6-foot seven-inches in height and weighs just over 23 stone. Imagine him coming at you.
That is the reality of high-impact sport at the very top level, but these scenes are replicated, to a lesser degree, at every tier. Whether it’s NFL, rugby, or GAA, a referee must now be alert to the potential dangers of the game which they’re governing. It has always been a consideration, but never to the extent that it is today.
Constant Feedback
Thurles native John Lillis is a man of several sporting disciplines. He combines his role as manager of the Limerick senior camogie team with various refereeing duties, officiating in both rugby and Gaelic games. From a rugby perspective, the responsibilities placed on referees are considerable, but so too is the level of monitoring and assessment. Technology now permeates the professional game like never before, but it is also being employed to great effect at grassroots level, as John explains.
“This season alone, I’ve done five games in which I’ve been ref-cammed - where the referee has a microphone on them, and there’s a video watching them throughout the game,” he said.
“Afterwards then, the referee can sit down with the rugby development manager and actually go through the game - every breakdown, every lineout, every penalty, every free-kick, every quick decision. So, there’s constant feedback.”
Given the weight of responsibility and time-intensive dedication associated with it, refereeing can probably be regarded as a vocation - in which one’s faith is often tested by self-doubt and in-game tribulation. As John highlights, there is a significant difference between knowing the rules, and actually applying them. The penance for poor performance can be demotion, which might seem harsh, but the ultimate goal is self-improvement.
In rugby there are standards, and these standards shape the pathway of progression. Other sporting organisations, such as the GAA, will argue that their referee development structure is just as robust, but in John’s experience, rugby is the model to follow, even if it does seem punitive at times.
“With those ref-cams, if certain instances are highlighted, and you don’t improve on those instances, then you don’t get to do your Division 1 Munster League game,” he said.
“You might be dropped back to Division 2 or Division 3, depending on your level of performance. In rugby, there’s a clear pathway. You start off as a trial member, then on to level one, level two, level three, and then up to level four - which is the national panel. So, we have a clear pathway in rugby, which isn’t really the case in GAA.”
Lured by the mystique, John first became a referee to satisfy his own ambition. It was a personal choice, a challenge which the 39-year-old has fully embraced. A rugby referee must learn to sound the whistle in various different tones, each designated to indicate a particular foul or incident in the game. Sometimes we curse the piercing screech, other times we’re thankful for it. Often, we just breathe a sigh of relief. Irrespective of the emotion, it is in everybody’s interest that the whistles continue to be blown, that players continue to play, and that sport continues to be just that - sport.