Tom Doocey, the first New Zealander to referee a Five Nations match, has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He refereed over 90 first class and international games until his retirement in 1990, after which he became involved in administration.

Keith Lawrence has been award an Officer of the Order. His career as a referee and administrator has spanned more than 40 years and he was recently prominent as the NZRU’s Referees Manager.

As a female rugby referee, Chelsea Gurr must be prepared for all manner of situations.

For instance, like the time a cheeky 10-year-old asked her for her phone number. It happened several years ago after she had refereed the curtainraiser to a Nelson Bays representative match at Trafalgar Park. She still laughs about it today.

But the now Christchurch-based whistleblower does not have too far to look for some on-field advice.

A referee for the past seven years, 23-year-old Gurr is the daughter of Nelson Bays referee Paul Gurr and was in town at the weekend to officiate in Friday’s senior B club match between Stoke and Waimea Old Boys at Greenmeadows.

That task successfully accomplished, she then ran the touch as assistant referee to her father in the main division one game between the two clubs.

“I played netball my whole life, really, and I guess I just got a bit sick of it,” she said.

“I’m a pretty competitive person and was in a social team and thought it was about time I did something else.”

She had considered playing rugby but of only diminutive stature, thought better of it.

Instead, she “followed dad to a referee’s meeting”, caught the bug and has been refereeing ever since.

She has had no problems adapting to a largely male-dominated environment and said that her gender might even sometimes be to her advantage.

“In all honesty, I think the sideline’s a lot more tame with me on the field. I just think [the spectators] probably mind their ps and qs a lot more.

“Different teams do different things. Some of them will be a wee bit standoffish and others will try to test me right from the very start. But 10 minutes into the game, they don’t really worry about me.”

Read the full story here at the Nelson Mail on stuff.co.nz

The International Rugby Board has announced the Match Official appointments for the full schedule of international matches played from June to September 2010, including the Tri Nations.

In addition, the IRB has confirmed the Match Official appointments for the Churchill Cup, the IRB Nations Cup and the IRB Junior World Championship to be played in America, Romania and Argentina respectively during June.

The IRB Match Official Selection Committee confirmed the appointments at its meeting in Dublin last weekend after a comprehensive review of international referee, assistant referee and TMO performances following the November internationals and RBS 6 Nations.

Read the full story and appointments here at irb.com

I am delighted to inform you of an exciting new IRB web based product which goes live today. The new site www.irblaws.com is an interactive website which teaches and tests the Laws of the game. We are convinced that this tool will revolutionize Rugby Law education.

The key features are:

• 7 language options: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese & Russian

• All compliant with 2009 Laws as approved by IRB Council on the 13th May.

• Hundreds of video clips to illustrate the laws

• Animations to support learning

• Videos to illustrate all Referee and Assistant Referee signals

• Self-test capability which covers:

o All 22 laws

o 7′s and Under 19 variations

o Referee signals

o Video tests

o The test can be taken over multiple visits to the site

o On completion users can download an awareness certificate

• Access to the site is free to everyone

• Registration is only required when users want to undertake the tests

• We can provide Unions with regular reports on who has passed the test and who has started

• All IRB licensed Trainers and Educators will receive a DVD to use on courses when internet is unavailable.

The new site will go live at 1100 BST on Tuesday 26th May. Please do go and try it out.

The International Rugby Board has formally ratified a recommendation by their rugby committee to approve 10 of the 13 global experimental law variations (ELVs) into the rules of the game. The recommendations of the IRB committee were unanimously approved and the integrated set of laws will be implemented globally from May 23. Most of the ten ELVs which will become laws of the game relate to the line-out and scrum. In addition to the suite of global ELVs, three Union-specific ELVs were also approved for integration into law. These include the ability for a Union to implement a maximum 15-minute half time in matches under its jurisdiction. IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said getting the game back under a universal set of laws across the world needed to be implemented as soon as possible. “The implementation date approved by the IRB council achieves that goal and represents the most suitable application date,” Lapasset said in a statement. “All international matches from May 23 onwards will be captured, while domestic and regional competitions played across the implementation date will be played under the current ELVs until their conclusion.” A brief rundown on each of the 10 ELVs approved to be made law on Thursday by the IRB: Law 6 – Assistant referees able to assist referees in any way the referee requires Law 19 – If a team puts the ball back in their own 22 and the ball is subsequently kicked directly into touch there is no gain in ground Law 19 – A quick throw may be thrown in straight or towards the throwing team’s goal line Law 19 – The receiver at the lineout must be two metres back away from the lineout Law 19 – The player who is in opposition to the player throwing in the ball must stand in the area between the five metre line and touch line and must be two metres from the line of touch and at least two metres from the lineout Law 19 – Lineout players may pre-grip a jumper before the ball is thrown in Law 19 – The lifting of lineout jumpers is permitted Law 20 – Introduction of an offside line five metres behind the hindmost feet of the scrum Law 20 – Scrum half offside line at the scrum Law 20 – The corner posts are no longer considered to be touch in goal except when the ball is grounded against the post