From Poacher to Gamekeeper!

Over the last few months I have probably been keeping a low profile. That might have something to do with having exams after Christmas for the first time in about five years. Having exams after Christmas must have initially been thought up by some real Dickensian like nerd who had a bad experience as a child.

I often find the exam experince quite weird, sitting down at a desk for a defined period of time and wringing your gray matter out and hoping that you get enough inspirational thought to get above a predefined point. The other thing I hate about exams is the pre-exam confidence chat that some people have to have with you to prove that they know their stuff. I am convinced that these people only do this to either demoralise someone or to make themselves feel good. My hatred for this chat has led me to a tried and tested routine of heading to the loo or discussing sport prior to entering an exam.

After the exams finally passed I managed to get a break for a few days and then it was back to the office. This was particularly weird, being back in my old job for a week and also having students for the week. It really was a bit weird! The concept still makes me smile. Having students one week, being one the next week!

Last weekend I had a similar experience while refereeing rugby with the boys I coach. Having been back at uni I haven’t had the chance to see the troops in action this season.  It was quite funny to watch, especially when one the boys placed the ball infront of the line and then wondered why the opposition picked it up and ran 40 yards. I think he is coming to terms with himself now.

Getting to referree often makes me think what I would be like to referree in rugby if I had time to play. As I referree I tend to think of what I would do in particular situations and am always thinking at a ruck, I wouldn’t have done that!

Where rules are laws!

Not since the Magna Carte being first penned beside the Thames, has man actually realised how little civilized society actually understands about rules, or to better phrase it has one man realised how little he knows about the laws of a game.

So why in rugby is it laws and not rules, and why if Rugby was invented in England, i.e. Rugby is it currently being run by the IRB from Dublin. Some of the best things in life are simply unexplainable. Who could have imagined that one of the finest things ever to come out of England, it was decided to let the Irish look after.

To begin to explain how and why certain decisions are made on a rugby pitch to an alien of the game, is like explaining why the Italians have style. Sometimes we just have to accept that they have both come about over a period of time for reasons that we can’t fathom.

Upon downloading the rulebook for rugby, sorry laws. It appears that somewhere in the 182 page document I may learn why decisions by referees are made. On first appearances, the referees signal section looks like some Village People choreographed dance. Who would have thought that a referee had 46 separate hand signals. Sir Francis Drake probably used less for the entire Spanish Armada, (that is probably because he was tending to his dysentery).

So after finally getting to grips with the 182 pages, I may hopefully finally understand that the referee is not just blowing his whistle and waving his arms around, because he has small man syndrome and wants attention.

It probably also won’t cover such topics as :

1. Why footballers look like they have been shot when the invisible man tackles them?
2. Why footballers have conferences with the ref?
3. Why New Zealand always enter as favourites to a World Cup?
4. Is Sebastien Chabal a Neanderthal and does he live in a cave?

God bless Webb Ellis for being a petulant schoolboy who took a huff and sat on a ball until his friends played by his rules – sorry laws!