Continuous Referee Development
It’s vital that all referees continue to develop their craft of refereeing so they can support our game.
The WRU have developed CRD opportunities that are delivered by our WRU Educators out in the community at local rugby clubs, these are designed to support referees at the level they are officiating at.
Supportive topics such as Advantage, Managing the ruck, The tackle, The scrum and The lineout have already been developed and are currently being delivered to support our level 1 referees.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to attend a CRD, the following videos have been created to assist the development of those new to refereeing and are refereeing at Level 1.
Positioning
Ben Whitehouse gives us a short tutorial on the importance of adopting the correct position and some key points on the rational why. He breaks it down into a simple 4 step process that all new referees need to adopt.
The Tackle
Craig Evans gives us a great insight into the laws of the tackle what the referee should look for and what is an is not allowed in our game, he moves it on to the contact area and all its associated laws and how best to interpret them.
Refereeing the scrum
Ben gives another whistle stop tutorial on refereeing the scrum, aimed at level 1 Referees (U16 and below). He introduces the key concepts that need to be addressed when refereeing the scrum, from the set up to the calls and what you can expect to see and need to do.
Refereeing the line out
Adam Jones provides an insightful video on refereeing the line out, aimed at level 1 Referees (U16 and below). He introduces the key concepts that need to be addressed when refereeing the line out and helpful hint and tips.
Referee Corners
The Welsh Rugby Union’s Community Department is excited to introduce you to its initiative to support and develop referees.
Referees Corner has been established as a way of connecting a group of people who “share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”.
Often referred to as Communities of practice (COP) the art of people engaging in collective learning has been around for a long time, but as we are growing more into a technological era, we have been able to become far more connected.
The structural characteristics of a referee’s corner are defined to a domain of knowledge, a notion of community and a practice:
Domain: A domain of knowledge creates common ground, inspires those who attend to participate, guides their learning, and gives meaning to their actions.
Community: The notion of a community creates the social fabric for that learning. A strong community fosters interactions and encourages a willingness to share ideas.
Practice: While the domain provides the general area of interest for the community, the practice is the specific focus around which the community develops, shares, and maintains its core of knowledge.
At the WRU we are seeking ways to focus learning through reflection of practice and are offering high valued learning environments, where peer to peer learning activities are offered as a complementary alternative alongside the more traditional course offerings.
These offerings will be specified by domains that you practice in, and our offerings will be domain specific to level 1 referees, level 2 referees and level 3 referees and are intrinsically linked to our referee framework.