National Female Referee Day Continues To Empower Women In Rugby

The 2nd IRFU National Female Referee day took place in early September with sixteen referees from all four provinces enjoying a full day of education, training and development at the IRFU High Performance Centre.

Building on the success of last season, this year included more practical pitch work with U16 teams from Connacht, Leinster and Ulster who played a series of games.

This format gave the referees the opportunity to work as a team of 3 in each game, developing and expanding on various elements of their refereeing. For those not on the pitch, the games allowed live debate and discussion around refereeing principles and philosophy.

Having recently run a World Rugby Female Educator Course, the afternoon session included IRFU World Rugby Educator Glenda Mellon delivering a workshop addressing game and referee specific issues, facilitating debate and sharing of knowledge which added further value to the day.