Fogarty, O’Connell & Schmidt Contributing to High Performance Referee Development During Shutdown

The IRFU’s Head of Referees Dudley Phillips is already a number of weeks into a programme of remote continual professional development for Ireland’s high performance referees.

Over the past four weeks, the IRFU’s high performance panel of referees has had webinars with insight provided by Ireland’s national scrum coach John Fogarty, former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt and former Ireland captain Paul O’Connell.

John Fogarty discussed all aspects of the scrum and the challenges facing players, coaches and referees in what is a dynamic and constantly evolving area of the game.

Joe Schmidt, who is a member of World Rugby’s working group examining the breakdown, provided insight into the latest directives from the world governing body on this area of the game.

Paul O’Connell gave insight on what teams are trying to achieve at line-out and maul and the challenges for officials in spotting infringements when packs are at close quarters.

These CPD video conferences have been organised and facilitated by John Lacey, IRFU High Performance Referee Coach. Participating in the CPD video conferences are the IRFU’s panel of high performance referees: Andrew Brace, George Clancy, Sean Gallagher, Frank Murphy and Joy Neville, as well as David Wilkinson, the IRFU’s National Referee Manager, John Buckley, IRFU HPU Performance Analyst, and the team of IRFU Referee Development Managers.

These educational sessions have given all involved the opportunity to discuss and share views from the coach, player and referee perspectives. The schedule of CPD will continue weekly covering a number of different topics and incorporating the viewpoints of internal and external contributors.