A KEY element of this month’s European Under 19 tournament in the Pyrenees, in which hosts France beat holders England in the Championship final and Greece topped the Shield standings, was the nurturing of a number of match officials from across the globe.
Ten teams took part in the competitions (six in the Championship and four in the Shield) but perhaps of even longer-lasting importance was the fact that a dozen referees were involved, all of whom are now embarking on the process of taking vital knowledge – earned through international matchday experience and the gaining of further formal qualifications – back with them to their native lands.
The initiative is seen by the International Rugby League as being “the most expansive investment into grassroots game development in (our) history, (aimed at ensuring) that every IRL member nation is able to produce its own coaches and match officials, through accredited local educators.
“The IRL’s system focuses heavily on continuing technical development between courses, to ensure that acquired knowledge turns into maturing understanding of the game, higher technical standards and an authentically developed sport.
“The project is underpinned by state of the art e-learning management systems and coaching resources.”
No fewer than six national federations are set to benefit from the feedback from twelve match officials, including Englishmen Liam Breheny and Lucas Seal and Frenchmen Calvin Galandrin, Mateo Roca and Romain Pares, together with Andrew Pilkington – hailed as one of IRL’s leading match official educators – from Spain.
Also selected were Nectarios Tsakalos (Greece), Joseph Rago (Norway), Kemoy Whyte (Jamaica), Petar Randjelović (Serbia), Cody Kuxmann (USA) and Craig Davies (Wales) who, in addition to their on-field match officiating roles, worked with IRL match officials educator Steve Hogan on various aspects of the IRL’s technical education.
Rago, Randjelović and Tsakalos completed their level one CATO (consolidation – application – team/train – observation) with Hogan before joining Davies, Kuxmann and Whyte to undertake the IRL level two match official course.
All six are now targeting level two CATO+, through which they plan to proceed to being level one match official educators and deliver courses for their own national federations.
An impressed Hogan said: “The group were very eager to learn and their experience made it very easy to proceed through the level two course.”
In addition to the education programme, the twelve match officials enjoyed a nine-day experience in a full-time training environment, led by FFRXIII head of match officials Stéphane Vincent, and assisted by Hogan and Pilkington.
David Butler, the IRL’s head of membership and competitions, said: “I’m grateful to Stéphane, Steve and Andrew for their efforts and their leadership.
“They gelled the group very quickly. All twelve became a very tight-knit and supportive group very quickly who worked hard for each other on the field and supported each other off it, helping everyone to learn, develop and having a great experience.
“I’m also delighted we have been able to accelerate the cohort through the IRL education continuum, which will quickly pay dividends for their national federations once they are qualified as match official educators and also, in time, for IRL, who will be able to deploy the educators to support other national federations within their regions as part of this vital global project.”