Two Refs Are Better Than One

With only three days left in our amazing trip to South Africa, Emily and I referred our final koshuis game as a pair on Thursday night, using the dual ref system. We came up with the idea during the day on Wednesday while we lamented, what we thought would be, our final (my first, Emily's 3rd) koshuis game. We decided it was worth a shot to ask Hendrick and his response that night was basically a strong maybe. Before asking him I was prepared to be persistent and bug him all day on Thursday if I had to. On Thursday morning, while everyone was settling down after (Emily's and my last) bergpad, Hendrick told the group our assignments and Emily and I were to be in the middle together; our wish was granted. She and I high-fived.

For the rest of the day she and I talked about this part of the game or how we would handle that situation and things were coming together nicely. We came to an agreement on several aspects of our game and when we didn't agree she and I discussed the issue until we did agree. Discussions never lasted long which was good because, to me, it meant we were getting onto the same wavelength. Fortunately, Marius gave Ryan (also dual reffing but with someone not in the academy), Emily, and me a crash course on the basics of positioning with two referees. That presentation cleared up some questions we didn't know we had and also gave us more to talk about. By the time we got to the field, about 5 minutes before kickoff, I was feeling confident and ready and I think she was, too.

The captains came over for the coin toss and I realized we had not decided who would say what at the coin toss. I decided that, since I had the coin, I would do the talking. That was a minor hiccup but it was representative of the entire game because whenever there was a situation that we did not plan for, one of us took charge or told the other one to take charge.

There was a bit of confusion early on, however. I was playing advantage for a knock on and, shortly after the knock on, Emily called a penalty against the team with advantage. I stopped the game, explained the situation, and we moved on without any issues from either side. After that point any confusion was insider information that, hopefully, went unnoticed by the untrained eye. For example, early in the first half there was an attempted kick at goal. The penalty was Emily's so my duty was to stand under the posts. While the kicker was setting up I stood there wondering who would blow the whistle if the kick was good. I thought that since I was under the posts I should do it but since traditionally the ref is next to the kicker she should do it. The kicker missed wide right so it was a non-issue in the end but after the game she told me that she wanted to make eye contact so we could sort out this small detail.

Throughout the game Emily and I checked in with each other after tries or when the ball was dead. Our conversations were short ("Happy?" "Happy."), thumbs up based, or, on occasion, were just to relay a concern about the game or mention a personally missed call. Neither of us was ever in the other person's way and neither of us felt overshadowed.

The game was one sided (5 tries - 0), cold, and rainy but Emily and I had a blast.

Happiness.

Refs at work

No worries at all