Give me a ref who lets the boys play, anyday

Did any of you see the Selborne vs Queens College rugby match on the TV last weekend?

I watched a replay during the week. Selborne were brilliant, showing just why they have five players in the SA Schools team, but what really caught my eye was the performance of the referee, Rod Harris. He didn’t look the part. He’s not so young anymore, well he has grey hair anyway, and not as slim and sleek as most referees you see on TV these days, but he was superb.

The clarity of his communication, his application of the advantage law and, most importantly, his attitude, reflected in the way he spoke to the boys was fantastic. I thought while I was watching that here was a referee who realised the players were the stars of the show, not him. I particularly liked the way that he called the teams Queens and Selborne, none of that “white” and “gold” nonsense that straight away puts an impersonal distance between the ref and the players.

I’ve tried to find out who Mr Harris is, without much success other than to find out that he’s a teacher in East London – no surprises there – and a member of the East London Barbarians Referee Society. I called the number listed on their Facebook page, but the man who answered was cagey about them. They are a private organisation, not affiliated to the official Border rugby referees, but other than to say they broke away from Border because of irregularities there, he wouldn’t tell me who or what they are.

No matter, if the reffing style of Rod Harris is what they are all about, more strength to them.

All of this took place in the context of some pretty unpleasant goings-on in schools rugby games in these parts recently.  I was at a game not long ago when a player was red-carded for screaming racist obscenities at the referee, on another occasion I watched boys playing for various teams at a big “derby day” throw punches throughout the morning, following the slightest provocation. And I read scathing reports on the role the referee played (or didn’t play) in a particularly ugly derby game in Pretoria.

It made me think, as I’m prone to do these days, now that I’m in my autumn years, of the time when I was a first team rugby coach and a referee. Maybe it was because the game at school level was not approached as professionally then as it now, but I’m confident that if Rod Harris was around then, he’d have been in great demand. The coaches in the circles I moved in would have told the union to keep their highly qualified, top-rated whistlers and called on him to handle their top games.

There was a small group of referees those days, mostly teachers, who were popular choices because, the people at the schools said, they let the boys play the game, were empathetic and protective of them, much like Rod Harris was on Saturday.

For a while I, for some reason, was one of them. I was a member of the official refs society, but I handled a lot of games without being officially appointed to them. It was all quite amateurish, and by the grace of God, we never had a serious incident that I can remember, but we all quite consciously believed in letting the boys play the game, not in showing how technically perfect we were.

In the new world we find ourselves in now, it’s all about zero tolerance, and following the protocols from here on in. I think that overstructured approach leads to frustration among the players and that contributes to the ugly incidents we see.

No-one on Rod Harris’ field last Saturday would have thrown a punch. All of them, winners and losers, clearly enjoyed the game and my fading eyes never saw a single infringement in the game that was missed by him.