REFEREE Q&A - ROBBIE MCGREER

When did you decide to take up the whistle and why? A fellow player at Ballymena, John Nicholl, who is Head of Rugby at Cambridge House School, convinced me to take the affiliate referee’s course and referee their 1stXV matches. At this course, I met David Wilkinson (Wilko) who convinced me to take refereeing a step further and do the new recruit’s course in January 2013. What is the biggest thing you have learned since you started refereeing? Managing a game, managing myself and managing the players on the field during a game. Also, that there are about 10 different ways to blow a whistle! Have you had any setbacks along the way? There have been a few; whether having a bad game, or a few bad games and just having to step back and take time to reflect on what is going right and what is going wrong and sort the latter out. Injury has been a big one for me; I got nominated to IPAS (Inter Provincial Assessment Scheme) in June 2015 and tore my ACL, MCL and damaged cartilage 2 days later. I had to tell Wilko (the then referee manager) that I wouldn’t be refereeing for a while (approximately 15 months). Although this was a major setback, I helped John Crothers coach new referees and was elected onto the USRFR management committee to help keep me connected to the Society. What is IPAS and what does it involve? IPAS is the Inter Provincial Assessment Scheme; this is where the Society picks a number of their up and coming referees and sends them to the other provinces to be assessed three times before Christmas and three times after. In essence, it is to test referees to see if they meet the credentials to become a National Panel referee. What is your favourite thing about refereeing? I still dream of playing, so for me it is the gameplay that is my favourite thing about refereeing. Being as close to the action as I can get is what I love most. What is the most memorable game you have refereed so far? Most memorable game so far was my first game outside Ulster, which was Kilfeacle vs Clonmel, I had been lucky enough to play club rugby in the other three provinces but refereeing it was a different story! The answer to this question may change as I take charge of MCB vs RBAI this Saturday in the Quarter-final of the Danske Bank Schools Cup…. What is your ambition as a referee? I would love to go as far as I can as referee. My current goal is to graduate from IPAS and get onto the National Panel and hopefully in the future, be the man in the middle for a Schools Cup Final. Who is your favourite referee and why? Favourite referee would be Alan Lewis, I grew up watching when the All Ireland League had the best players in Ireland as well as the best referees in Ireland in it, and Mr Lewis was up there with the best. His game management, the way you did not notice him until he needed to intervene was a great way to officiate the game. What could make you improve as a referee? I think my communication could improve; sometimes I have a tendency to talk too much (in both life and refereeing!). Players and coaches are always finding ways to manipulate the game to do what they want so I think referees should remain students of the game and keep finding ways to improve their game. What advice would you give to someone thinking about taking up refereeing? DO IT! I hear people say to me all the time “I couldn’t be a referee!” I was guilty of the same thing until I took up the whistle and loved it. How has your season been going so far? My season so far has been excellent. I have completed five of my six IPAS games and the scores have been good so I’m remaining positive that I will be in the running to get on the National Panel for next season. My next IPAS game is Clonmel v Bandon on Sunday 3rd March and I have been appointed to referee one of the Town’s Cup semi-finals.