The Latvian Rugby League Federation has held a match officials course in Riga, which saw two level 1 educators, Helvijs Vičivskis and Nauris Baumanis qualify, along with three new match official candidates. The course was attended by Ukrainian and Polish cluster colleagues, as well as guest French officials, and was supervised by RLEF MO manager, Tom Mather.
“The RLEF workshop was an innovative opportunity to collaborate internationally on training rugby league match officials for the future, encouraging consistency, empowerment and assertiveness,” said Richard Frileux, head of the FFRL’s Commission Centrale de l’Arbitrage. His accompanying colleague, Jerome Cavalli added: “This was a good way for us to get started on our own project. We have learned a lot as observers and now understand the rationale better.”
Ukrainian Federation of Rugby League educator Denys Cherniev led most of the sessions as part of his own personal development, while Polska Rugby XIII official Bartlomiej Sierota was heavily involved in the critical analysis phase.
“I was really encouraged,” said Tom Mather. “The Latvian educators had clearly improved and it was great seeing a Ukrainian official manage virtually all the delivery. I was also very pleased to spend time with Richard and Jerome to discuss France’s leadership role in European match official development.”