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Hometown Refs

KevinO

John Hipwell (52)
Yes, and I believe all refs would hold day jobs away from the game. So that becomes very hard if you have to hop on a plane to Buenos Aires or Joburg every few weeks.

Can't confirm for all refs, but ref is a full time job for most. Talked to Jaco Peyper after he reffed the Rebels v Crusaders game in Melbourne when Mortlock scored the winning try. He was telling me he spends his week in the gym working on fitness and even will spend time running with teams at training as it's how he manages to get extra match conditions practice.
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
Can't confirm for all refs, but ref is a full time job for most. Talked to Jaco Peyper after he reffed the Rebels v Crusaders game in Melbourne when Mortlock scored the winning try. He was telling me he spends his week in the gym working on fitness and even will spend time running with teams at training as it's how he manages to get extra match conditions practice.

That is good.

BUT

Would we expect any less?
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Jaco is one of the top three or four refs in the World, and can probably draw the income to sustain a professional lifestyle.

But other Super referees aren't so lucky, and I know anecdotally that most have day jobs during the week.

The demands of the job aren't really that great outside of weekends. Sure you need to stay in shape, and do a bit of video review. But that's easy enough to do outside of traditional office hours.

And it's not like you can 'practice' in the same way a player can. There may be opportunities at the odd team training session, but again that's not enough to suggest going full time is really necessary.
 

Eyes and Ears

Bob Davidson (42)
The 3 Australian Super Rugby referees plus Amy Perrett are full time referees. They don't have days jobs. The amount of travel required is the bigger factor rather than the quiet week at home doing fitness and watching videos.
Last year as a World Cup Year, Gardner and Berry would have been away from home more than 100 days.
The next tier of referees have days jobs as well although a couple of them work for Rugby Australia or a state union.
 

PhilClinton

John Hipwell (52)
Berry was a teacher at Gregory Terrace in Brisbane I believe when he first started reffing seriously.

He's now going into his fourth year of 'extended leave' at the school due to reffing commitments, so I guess he's been classified as a full-time referee for a while now.
 
B

Bobby Sands

Guest
Berry was a teacher at Gregory Terrace in Brisbane I believe when he first started reffing seriously.

He's now going into his fourth year of 'extended leave' at the school due to reffing commitments, so I guess he's been classified as a full-time referee for a while now.

He was also Berrick Barnes halves partner at IGS, and had a very unlucky pro career. Very good 9.
 

Wilson

David Codey (61)
Nick Berry down to ref the Reds v Sunwolves .

33 caps for the Reds , doesn't much more "home town " than that.

It really is ridiculous, from that Wayne Smith piece in the Australian:

But it still beggars belief that Jacobs wasn’t sent to Brisbane for the Reds-Sunwolves while Kiwi Mike Fraser, who has been appointed to the Crusaders-Highlanders match, could have flown to Victoria for the Rebels-Sharks game while Berry handled his assignment in Christchurch.

Even when it's so readily solvable they're not interested. It's almost as though they think the answer is giving the reds a hometown ref to either balance it out or shut us up.
 

Brumby Jack

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
@rebels3 gaining traction in the Aus again.

SANZAAR dispute it but won't release their own figures...

Apologies for the large images...

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Screen Shot 2020-02-20 at 10.06.16 pm.png
Screen Shot 2020-02-20 at 10.07.50 pm.png
 

Ignoto

John Thornett (49)
Hmmm, I've got absolutely no problem with them having different figures, but put your money where your mouth is if you don't think there's an issue. Why can't these be made publicly as I'm sure it'd be a great 'trust and transparency' story.
 

KevinO

John Hipwell (52)
"Mr Marinos declines to be interviewed"..Really? Isn't he meant to be CEO?
How much is he getting paid to not do his job?

Well it's the first time I have ever seen the CEO name get mentioned, never seen Sanzar interview for anything so small steps.
 
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