Gulf rugby officials plan for bright future

Dubai: It's going to be a busy season for rugby referees from across the Gulf, who gathered in Abu Dhabi last weekend for a seminar.

With the 2007-08 season about to start, and another Dubai Sevens tournament imminent, the officials had plenty to discuss, with the group also looking further ahead to the 2009 IRB Sevens World Cup which will be hosted by Dubai.

Stan Wright, the Referees Appointments Officer and Honorary Secretary of the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union Executive Committee, was pleased with the proceedings. He explained: "The weekend was about us setting ourselves up for the 2007-08 season and getting the guys to focus on what we need to do. We looked at our contribution to the 2007 Dubai Sevens with a view to how we are going to make sure we make the 2009 World Cup successful.

"We also talked about how we will referee the game in 2007-08 successfully. There was a fair bit of contribution from everybody and the good thing is that everybody is wanting to take ownership of doing things to make refereeing better."

Consistent in what we do

Wright said these types of seminars were important to get referees on the same page.

"It allows us to be consistent in what we do across the union so that players can have confidence that things are going to happen the same way in every game. To me that is most important."

He added the group discussed several technical points of the laws of the games such as the scrum law which was introduced last season as well as promoting positive play at the breakdown.

Always on the lookout to increase their numbers, Wright added: "We want to grow refereeing and so we've got to make it attractive to people. That is dependent on us being seen contributing positively to the game."

Looking at the season ahead, he said: "I'm expecting the referees will get a lot more enjoyment out of the game - that's something that we talked about - people having fun and enjoying themselves.

"One of the things we are doing is trying to set a standard for Asia to follow."