Ulster Rugby Annual Report

Mr Harold Jacobs continues in his long service as Honorary Membership Secretary and we are grateful for his dedication. At the start of April 2019, the Society had one hundred and forty five active referees, an increase of twenty three, forty assessors, up from thirty six, and twenty five non active members. Four trial members were still undergoing training in various stage points at the end of March. While these figures indicate stability in resource numbers, referees, like players have diverse domestic and professional duties which put demands on their time. These, alongside the norms of illness and injury have seen significant non-availability rates at various times. For season 2018/19 an average 28% of referees were not available for selection with a peak at 39%. This is a significant issue without any simple redress. There were a number of weekends on which the Society could barely cover all the fixtures, and could only do so because of Saturday morning Club postponements or cancelled fixtures. These shortcomings have been recorded in the Branch’s risk register. It is once again disappointing to note that eight Clubs do not have any affiliated Society referees. The Society’s Operations Committee has developed a comprehensive recruitment and training plan which was shared with the Clubs in April 2019 and which, if supported, should go a long way to address these shortcomings. The continued growth of Sunday rugby has seen a rise in referee numbers available for selection for a Sunday, a very welcome development. One hundred and ten members now make themselves, at some level of commitment, available for Sunday games. It was disappointing that only three fixtures were played under the provisions of the IRFU ‘Game On’ initiative. The feedback from the referees from these fixtures was very positive for the participants. The Society is pleased to offer ever increased levels of support to the Youth Sections of Ulster Rugby, now reaching down to U14 level games in the hope of aiding continual improvement within the player base. The Society acknowledges the work and support of the Youth Committee in identifying the games in need of particular attention by a traffic light system. Regrettably however there is continued difficulty in certain geographical areas. Youth games increased by 9% from last season with five hundred and forty nine games played by seventy nine teams. It is difficult to accurately correlate the percentage of our resources used on age-grade rugby as a significant number of our members would ‘double job’ on a Saturday and do an age-grade game in the morning, either for the Society, or directly to their own Clubs, and then undertake some role in the afternoon, be that as a TJ or even at a second game. It continues to represent in the region of 25% of selections made by the Society and offers specific game management challenges. Quality Control & Development Richard Kerr, who was appointed as the Referee Development Manager for the Ulster Branch, brings a wealth of refereeing and educational experience to the

role and has the total support of the management and membership of the Society in his endeavours The Society’s Development Group Programme and its associated coaching structure are coordinated by Jack Young. Fifteen USRFR members showing high potential received one hundred and twenty two coaching reports and support, either from dedicated, experienced coaches attending their games or by video analysis, along with detailed one to one guidance from the RDM. A robust quality assurance system was maintained in the assessment of all active referees. Competence to officiate is adjudged solely on evidence based assessment. It is this system which allows this Society to operate a non-discriminatory practice as mandated by the membership. This process has seen over three hundred assessments undertaken. Those who did not reach the competency requirement were actively managed. 96% of the active pool have been reviewed at least once, 75% have had two assessments, with 52% having been seen three times. The commitment of the assessment group should not be underplayed. Their service is central to the personal development of individual referees and is coordinated by Ian Thompson. IPAS & National Panel The Society offered three members to the IPAS system for 2018/19, Andrew Mitchell, Robbie McGreer and Keane Davison. The individual performances during their Inter-Provincial games have met our high expectations and all three were promoted onto the IRFU National Referee Panel. Ulster now supplies nineteen of the fifty two referees, equating to 36.5%, on the National Panel. The Society also has three of the four Development Contracted referees on the Panel. Technology Video analysis is being deployed to develop referees and has also been offered in the citing of foul play. Eight selected fixtures were recorded by Graham Cardwell for the enhancement of selected members. Additional monitoring hardware is also being deployed to benefit Society coaches of high potential match officials. The E-sport platform continues to be the primary software package in use for Branch and Society. The Society’s website database is now integral to that of the Ulster Rugby site and regularly gets impressive hit number returns. This adds value to both the Society and the greater Ulster Rugby public. Discipline On-field discipline trends are up on that of last season. The Society is working with the Branch to improve procedures and policies around off-field incidents. The support of the vast majority of Ulster Clubs in their actions to educate and control their patrons along with the involvement of the Schools committee to actively correct the behavior of players, officials and spectators is most welcome. The thanks of the Society go to Stephen Elliot chair of Discipline, Stephen Black of the Schools committee, Laura Jane O’Neil who handles our reports at the Branch and the Society representatives, John Coyle, Stephen Robb, Brian McCargo, and Alan Ward.

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IRFU ULSTER BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT 2018/19