Refereeing

Question
Chris - I`m actually writing a novel, which calls for a female referee at the international level. How likely an event is this? The character in question would have done a lot of amateur refereeing (school then club level). My own feeling is that it would probably take a major freak accident to an incumbent referee in circumstances where the game would otherwise have to be cancelled, to get her there!  

Answer
Wilna,

There is nothing structural to stop a female referee from refereeing any game at any level (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). So a duly qualified female referee could (and no doubt one day will) take on a Six Nations game or even a World Cup match. What has happened recently is that the 9 main rugby nations have all created professional referees, England has about 4 from memory. They are all male, they have gone via Referee Societies to international refereeing and then to professionalism. On paper the only reason why none of them are female is that no woman has yet gone through all the hoops.

In reality most senior women's games are still refereed by men so I guess any decent femail ref would get a life times supply of women's games to run (and possibly get stuck there). It all seems to boil down to a very long apprenticeship.

One other factor is that at international level referees have to be under 50 to keep up with the 18 year old players. Which means they have to start refereeing before their early 30s, exactly the age that most players are still playing rugby. So in many cases senior referees are good players who suffered some tragedy on the pitch which stopped them playing. Maybe you could weave that unspoken / enigmatic factor into the secret past life of your heroine....

I hope this helps,

Best wishes
Chris.