Fiji Referees’ Association Hopes To Send More Members To International Matches.
Fiji Rugby Union Referees’ Association has a contingent of 21 local and three international referees on hand at this weekend’s Coral Coast 7s tournament at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka.
The group will be monitored by FRU National Referee’s Coordinator Johnson Lee as the referees and match officials development programme continues to grow.
This year is a different year for the Fiji Rugby Union referees as they are focusing on sending more of our local referees abroad to take their trade into international level.
The referees committee in the country has already started the New Year jumping straight into their programme without wasting time, and they believe that focusing and executing their programme will allow what they’re vying for to be achieved.
This week, 14 match officials in Suva attended a Level 2 match officials and Level 1 match official coaching course facilitated by FASANOC.
Fiji Rugby Union Referees Coordinator Lee has emphasised that the main aim this year was to get more into the refereeing profession locally as the number was depleting and to encourage more women into refereeing whilst accredit some to be eligible in international games.
Lee added that “Already two of our local referee had gone abroad, one went to the HSBC World Circuit and the other one went to the junior trophy Under 20 championship.”
The two had passed the criteria, the fitness test; they also achieved the number of games they were supposed to be expose to, the level of games, the intensity before recommendations were send forward.
Lee explained that referees from all over the country “have started with referee fitness tests just to know the fitness level they’re currently in.
“This is to also prepare them for the programme that we have, they will have some match to referee locally and also abroad and there are also programmes set aside for the accreditation of match officials.
“The main gist of the programme they’re running now is to help local referees become more competent and to rise their level of performance.
“There will be lots of assessments, feedbacks, coaching, so hopefully we’re getting these referees on par with the demands that are there, the coaches and others are up to that standard so are we the referees.”
He added that if the Fiji Rugby Union Referees programme is followed well then “hopefully we will get some more of our local referee. into the world stage.”