From: Andrew MacNeaney, LSRFUR President
As mentioned in my Christmas message, I wanted to update you all on how things are progressing with the various initiatives we presented at the conference back in September. I want to stress that being only 4 months into our program, there is a lot of work still to be done given the size of the Society and the fact all of those implementing these changes are volunteers, so I wish to thank all of them for their commitment and all of you for your buy-in and feedback. Please continue to engage and provide suggestions on where we can improve and enhance our offerings across the Society.
Recruitment & Retention:
45 new referees have taken the field in London appointed games since September
7 Take Up the Whistle Courses are scheduled between now and April - all details are in this link Training Courses — LSRFUR (londonrugby.com)
270 different referees took the field in November to officiate on behalf of London - the most in a single month since 2018
Tim & the R&R team wish to thank you all for your activate participation and remind you to reach out to him if you think your local club can host a TUTW course or if we have further suggestions on how we can recruit more referees into the Society
MODC:
Promotions of Note
Richard Gordon – PGMOT
Max Marshall – NLMOT Associate
Matt Holmes & Rob Hitch – L5 Associates
Nick Edmonds – L6
Kasey Allen, Ollie Fudge, Chris Howe – L6 Associates
September to December saw the society appoint to 135 L6 games with a large proportion being allocated to regions to provide opportunities for development & reward of L8 & L7 referees. This is reflected in the number of names highlighted at the December MODC meeting as showing future potential for promotion to higher levels.
September to December saw the society pool of Match Observers undertake over 300 referee observations. This has enabled the society to begin to build a greater understanding of refereeing development & training needs going forward alongside providing feedback to individuals on their performances. We wish to thank all MOs for the significant contribution in the 1st half of the season and encourage them to continue to drive these observation numbers forward in the 2nd half.
Level 6 Observations - 68
North Region - 60
South East - 60
South West - 40
West - 40
Midweek - 35
Plans are underway for the Annual Conference with a proposed date of Sunday 1st September 2024 (please note it in your diaries!)
Alexis is also leading the rebirth of our Central Meetings. By bringing in quality speakers to discuss various aspects of officiating and personal development (not just in rugby), we hope to offer opportunities for all members to learn and develop their skills set. Our November meeting had Sue Redfern (former Cricketer and now Cricket Umpire) and Nick Buoy (Director of Rugby at Brighton College – Marcus Smith’s Rugby Master & former DoR @ Canterbury RFC) is due to speak in April about coaching youth rugby and working with referees to develop young players.
The RefMic system continues to build momentum. We have filmed 30 games since the start of the season with clips being identified by the individual referee to be added to our library. This library now has over 80 clips and a selection of these have already been included in LSRFUR training material and the plan is to make the library available to the whole society in the future once it has a grown further and we have fine-tuned it the navigation and storage requirements with the webpage developer.
Finally, we have purchased replacement units for the Tof3 kits and replaced broken parts within each kit. We now have 7 fully operational kits across the society and these are tracked/assigned to individuals so they are available within regions if required.
Overseas Exchanges:
Scotland - our first exchange with Scotland took place in January with Nathan Anscombe-Palmer (N) and Blair Cooper (W) heading to the Edinburgh Society across the weekend of Jan 20th/21st
France - our first exchange with the South West of France in February will see Ollie Munn (SW) and Matt Homes (W) represent London
Both our Scottish & French incoming refs were in London on the last weekend of January with great success
Thailand - Becky Piddlesden (SW), Rob Park (W) and Josh Methven (SE) were selected to attend the Bangkok 10's last October.
Dubai - London was well represented at the Dubai 7s in December through a mixture of selections and direct appointments to this tournament. Harry Hopkins (SE), Andy Gloria-Henderson (SW), Will Foster (N), Hamish Grant (W), James Maby (N), Mel Wright (W), Robbie Bourke (SW), Hannah Everitt (W) and Richard Gordon (W) all showcased London's talents in various roles on and off the field.
Hong Kong - we have received an invite to send 1 person to referee/AR at the Hong Kong 10s and World Rugby 7s in April 2024
The U.S. has just appeared on our radar for a late February / early March exchange
Sweden - keep an eye on your inbox as we'll be looking to send two referees to Sweden in the summer/autumn of 2024
We are also in dialogue with various Italian, Irish and Welsh Societies about potential exchange programs and will continue to keep you updated on those as they progress.
We hope the selection criteria being used is viewed as fair and transparent and we stress the importance of giving all levels of referees the opportunity to experience an exchange and represent the Society. We also recognise the importance of these Exchanges for developing our Match Observers and have communicated with all Societies we are engaging that once the first exchange is completed and deemed a success, we then wish to expand the program to include MOs going forward.
Social Committee:
As discussed at the conference, my desire was to see the formation of London Social Committee to arrange social events for all of our members both regionally and across London. I am delighted that Committee is now up and running with the following structure
Chair - Tobias Whinney
Secretary - George Taylor
Central Leads - Liam Palmer-Anscombe & Michael Teo
Regional Leads:
North - Paul Murphy
South East - Anthony Proctor
South West - Ashley Lipke
West - Bandara Wekadapola
Senior Members Lead - Tony Lewis
Youth Members Lead - Emma Abbate
The first event they have organised will be a quiz and viewing of the France v Ireland 6 Nations game on Friday February 2nd; details have been sent out via the website and social media and WTR.
Sponsorship:
This has been a frustrating process for myself and the Gen Sec I'm afraid. We have been in discussion with one firm since September who have been waiting on a significant approval to launch a product before they sign our sponsorship contract and so far, that approval has not been forthcoming. We are still engaged with the firm, but are also looking at alternative options. The Society is in a very healthy financial position, so the lack of a sponsor will not impact any of our goals, but we would like to finalise one so we can rebrand our kit and move on with other priorities. We will continue to keep you updated on this topic as we have more news to share.
Kit / Incentive Scheme:
In the meantime, if anybody needs new kit, Mr Biles has worked with Gilbert to make unbranded kit available to all members from the kit shop and we also have a full set of unbranded kit available for new referees. Those who have earned vouchers from last years incentive scheme should be receiving them iimminently, the delay on their distribution was due to a change in the London account manager at Gilbert and Mr Biles has had to bring the new person up to speed on our processes, so we thank you for your patience on that front.
Do remember that the kit process is a hard one - we are an incredibly large contract for Gilbert and there are a lot of members - so specific requests etc are hard to accommodate. As with everyone in the Society, everyone is a volunteer. If you have specific concerns around kit or sponsorship, do please drop the Gen Sec an email.
YMO's:
North Region:
Pierce Young is point person and there are 2 regular YMOs attending Regional Meetings. In addition, we have run several TUTW courses which have had on average 8 YMOs at each who are working with their local clubs.
South East Region:
Anthony Proctor is managing the YMO program in the SE and has had 4 expressions of interest, with 2 YMOs attending Regional Meetings. Discussions are on-going with some SE clubs to form a partnership which will allow the YMOs to cover some club games. We'll continue to update our members as things progress
South West Region:
Katrina Ham is managing the SW YMO program and has firmly established it with 5 new joiners since the start of the season. There has been a very successful collaboration with Wimbledon College so far this season and we have seen the YMOs actively participate in Regional Meetings and work as part of To3s with more experienced referees.
West Region:
Cyril Renaud is managing the YMO program in the West Region with a very successful collaboration with Ealing RFC. Like the SW, there has been a very positive number of YMOs join the program, with 15 in total representing London since the start of the 2022/23 season. Ealing, Wasps and London Welsh have all provided regular U10 to U15 games for this cohort and it has been well received by the YMOs and Clubs. Discussion with local schools is on-going to include their age grade program for officiating and 4 YMOs have expressed interest in attending the RPNS7 tournament in March to referee.
The Management Committee thanks all of those involved in this very worthwhile program across all regions, but we have been asked to note that in order to develop their game, the YMOs need mentors who can watch games and provide feedback and that is an area we need further volunteers, so please reach out to the YMO representative in your region if you can help!
The above updates are just a small segment of the work going on to raise the standards of LSRFUR across all aspects of the Society. To all of our members who contribute, thank you very much for all you do for the Society and please continue to provide feedback to your Regional Managers and the Management Committee on where we can improve. I will provide a similar update at the end of the season and I am working with the Social Committee on a lighter form of intra-season update to highlight our members personal success stories - more information to come!
Please go well for the 2nd half of the season and don't hesitate to reach out to any officer of the Society on any matter you wish to discuss.
Kind regards,
Andrew MacNeaney
President L.S.R.F.U.R.