Why? and also why?

Well I would love to still be playing. Sometimes I see some lower level teams playing and I think to myself "I could still do that", and then the next morning I find my back is aching because i've spent to long standing at the bar. Or I pulled my hamstring getting out of a taxi.

Also, over the past few years I have seen some shit refs. Some of these have been the local 'Society' refs, and some have been some fella who rocked up on a sunday morning to pick up his kit bag and got roped into referring the Under 15's in return for a pint or two.

I have also seen many excellent refs both official and unofficial. The truth is that our game needs these people, all of them even, the shit ones because without them, we have a big problem.

Anyway, I reckon that I can be in the group of the non-shit refs, and that I can provide the game 'a service' in return for all of the fun I have had over the years. By "fun" I mean, the lifelong friendships, the travel, the sense of comaradery, the successes and the achievements. I will ignore the broken bones, the pain on mondays at work, the hangovers, the arthritic fingers, the arguments with the selection committee, the high/late tackles, the sharpened studs, training in the snow, the money left up against that famous wall and the brushes with the law. Actually the last one was often fun too!

Yes, I can be a ref I thought. Now I am, a little later in life than most but fully qualified, in the 'society' and with my official RFU whistle with the Rose engraved on it.

But why this blog?

This will be my third official season, and I have had fun, a lot of fun. It has tested me, physically but more so mentally as, shit, there are a lot of laws. I started playing when I was 7 and carried on pretty much every weekend until my late(ish) forties. I was always the best referee on the pitch, so I knew it all. Then I picked up a whistle, and I watched as two sets of not very fit forwards crashed into what used to be known as a Ruck. What the hell is going on?

I have gotten used to it now. It is very rarely apparent that I don't know whats going on - in fact I manage to hide that fact for many full games these days. I am still learning the laws of course, and I am pretty confident the majority are in my head, though whether those laws are for last year, or only for the U19, or just laws for a particular competition, I can't be too sure.

So this season will be fun. We kick off with the Rugby World Cup of course, and then at the same time a similar sport kicks off with the community game in England, with our shiny new tackle laws and different way of applying some of the same laws as we will see with the professional refs at the global showpiece event in France.

I can't wait. Truly.