• 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00The biggest thing for female referees for me is perception. It's about showcasing that female refs do have a part to play in the male game.
00:09I want to be the best official that I can be and where I go with that I'm excited to see.
00:16The support from the WRU and my family, especially from my mum, auntie and my nan, they're massive rocks for me.
00:23I started refereeing when I was 17. I had a few shoulder injuries when I played so a few operations gave that up.
00:32A few seasons out and then my nan signed me up for the female only referee to ref course down at The Vale.
00:40So I did that and my first game was under 15 girls down at Cardiff Harlequins and I've not really looked back since then.
00:48Testing myself mentally and physically for that 80 just gives me that buzz that I can't get anywhere else apart from playing really.
00:55I like to get to the ground nice and early and give myself a little bit of breathing room.
00:59Introduce myself to both sets of coaches to see what I can best speak to the teams before kick-off around their warm-ups.
01:07I'll go into the changing rooms, get all my stuff ready, go out and speak to both sets of teams, check their studs and then do the toss with both captains.
01:16I'll go back in, get myself ready to warm-up, go out, warm-up, come back in, do a bit of my last mental prep, ready for the game and then we'll kick-off.
01:25For me now, I am still nervous before games. It's just the nature of it. I'm just anxious, excited, ready to go, a little bit nervous as well.
01:34But I think for me, looking back to my first game under 15 girls, I was like proper, proper anxious, a bit nervous.
01:40You don't really know what to expect. So I think that season, the biggest thing for me was growing into that, getting that experience into my belt.
01:48Just getting those routines like we just spoke about, what to do before the match, during the match and then after the match as well.
01:54Because I think that's the whole experience and if you can really nail that before kick-off, it does ease you into that game so much easier.
02:03The reaction across Wales has always been really positive.
02:08I've been to quite a few clubs now and really had positive experiences. Of course, some Saturdays are tougher than others, there's Sundays as well.
02:17But I think you take those and we park it and we move on from them.
02:23Sean Brickle, the Development Referee Officer for WIU has helped me massively in my refereeing journey.
02:31He was kind of in charge of that ready-to-ref group when I first started and he's been massive for me in terms of reviewing my games and just being there for me over the past three or four seasons.
02:46I think for me, probably the biggest thing is just being on the end of the phone and I can say that about all of the coaches that I work with in WIU.
02:55They're always there on that Saturday afternoon, whether I've had a good or a bad game.
02:58And I think for me, when you're out there on a Saturday, it can feel quite lonely.
03:03But knowing that you've got that support network with people like Sean, as well as my family, it's just been massively beneficial for me.
03:14If you'd have probably told me in the car park at Cardiff Queens when I was 17 that I'd be doing this now, I probably wouldn't have believed you.
03:20But again, I think very different expectations back then of what I wanted to achieve. I'm very different now.