Rugby has been more or less engrained in me from birth.   I was born on the highveld in South Africa and only when I moved to England at the age of 9 or so – did I realise it was a sport that required boots.  It seemed inevitably that I would be schooled at Rugby School and loved my time there.  Once being refereed by the iconic Clive Norling and often showing international visitors the close and the Webb Ellis plaque.  I discovered that Fijians are very big and hold hands.

My Rugby CV is much more as a player as it is only recently that I picked up the whistle – somewhat reluctantly as still love playing and touring.  Having recently toured Argentina, Uruguay and France with my old London Club of Old Haileyburians.  My toughest rugby was club level in Rustenburg – to which my advice is never utter a single word of English!   I can lay a dodgy claim to an international cap in the qualifying rounds of RWC 1999 for the Arabian Gulf too.

So refereeing to me is giving back to the game I love and has given me so much.   I have tended towards age group rugby as mostly available on a Sunday and love the combination of gentle coaching, encouraging and blowing the whistle.   Any discipline issues almost always seem to arise from overzealous coaches and parents.