In January the society partook in our first ever international referee AND Match Observer exchange organised in partnership with the French refereeing region of Aquitaine in the locality around Pau, a city nestled in the shadow of the Pyrenees. The society thanks Sebastien Abbate of the South East area (and formerly SW France) who has helped organise the exchange.
Ollie Carter (L6 South West) and Graham Wiseman (MO North) have come together to pen their recounting of events below:
The weekend started very early on Friday morning, as Graham and I met at Heathrow airport at 4am to begin our trip. Flying via Paris, we arrived in Pau at around 1:30pm where we were met by Alexis, a French referee who would be one of our hosts for the weekend having visited London on exchange back in November.
The activities began the moment we arrived as we met London's own Sebastian Abbate on our way to a wine tasting session in Jurançon, at a vineyard on lower slopes of the Pyrenees near Pau. Graham, who is significantly more knowledgeable about wine than I, was very impressed by the range of white wine available. Following the wine tasting we headed into the centre of Pau to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings and make the most of the glorious weather. From the city centre there is a view over the Pyrenees that is truly spectacular.
It was then time for a feed and drink in the city centre square, before heading to watch a professional basketball game (Pau vs Nantes), where we met Julien, another of our hosts who had also visited London on exchange in late 2024. By the 3rd quarter, having been up for approaching 18 hours, we could be forgiven for feeling slightly sleepy but luckily the excitement of the basketball kept us awake as the home team came back from 20 points down to take the lead in the final minute! A fantastic way to start the trip!
Saturday started in a leisurely way, as we visited the local spa for a couple of hours before wandering about the local market where a spot of lunch turned into the first 3 course meal of the day, courtesy of the restaurant owner who was a former referee.
An afternoon of rugby followed, starting at Section Paloise (Pau) Vs Ospreys Challenge Cup match. Unfortunately, the home team lost in the dying moments which left the home crowd angry to say the least. From here, we went to a local rugby club, to watch the second half of an U18s game and the first half of a women's match, to get a flavour of grass roots French rugby.
The evening started with a drinks reception at the MOT, which is essentially the rugby referee federation's own building. This is where they hold their training sessions for the region. At the reception we were served the local cured hams and cheeses, before heading back into Pau for another 3-course meal at another restaurant owned by our former referee, which turned out to be another spectacular meal!
After a good night's sleep, match day was upon us. We headed to the local Novotel for a pre match brunch where I met Pierre (my assessor), Cedric (a French referee appointed to support me with pre match briefings etc) and Frank (touchline manager). Graham met his referee for the day, the touchline fourth official and the French assessor also appointed to his game. We then headed our separate ways to our matches.
Whilst I travelled to referee my game, Graham observed a referee at another game locally. He gave this account:
I observed a referee officiating a rugby game that some might consider a “classic”. At least by the numbers you would have thought it was a contest for the ages. We had a 30-30 draw with twenty-five penalties, one RC, two YCs, and three White Cards (read on for an explainer), with neither team happy. The home side's RC was for a punch, with the referee praised by the assessor that I was shadowing for issuing it “without a trembling hand”. In turn, the away side's unhappiness was due to a disallowed try for crossing.
In French community rugby clubs are fined heavily for YCs, so the White Cards are used for repeat offences judged not to be cynical with low impact and are not fineable. All cards are entered online by a fourth official, which every game has appointed, immediately after the match.
The match was equivalent to Level 6 (Regional 2) but with smaller and more aggressive players, most of whom were farmers and were very strong. The atmosphere was somewhat tribal, and the small grandstand was full, with vocal home and away supporters, split in two equal sections. Many more spectators lined both touchlines.
A big difference versus the English community game I noticed was that there was much less ball-in-play time. The French tend to posture and antagonise each other after the whistle is blown. Just five advantages were played with only one being successful. The number of scrums and lineouts was evidence of the playing time being much lower than our norm. Whistling early for offences meant less recycling of the ball and more penalties, since non-material offences were also penalised. Also, there were four captain warnings, which I was told is normal.
MOs in France do not use radio coms. They prefer to sit in the stands and like it there to gain a perspective of the field of play. The MO that I was shadowing sat there next to the cameraman, (see the attached photos). I was on the touchline with the fourth official. The MO and I travelled to the match together. Beforehand he read my report, in French, for one of the referees from the London Exchange, which was considered short compared to theirs.
I participated in a debrief which took place in the changing room that included the referee, his coach, the MO the fourth official, and Sebastian Abbate from the SE Region. At the end of the debrief by the French MO I was invited to comment and took the approach of comparing and contrasting the differences between us, using the lower in-play time as evidence. I explained that having not seen a match in France before, I did not have the experience to judge the referee's performance, (the MO judged it very good at level, praising the firmness, serenity of the referee and his ability to defuse tensions).
There is a lot of bureaucracy and formality for referees in France. Often there is a lunch at the club beforehand with wine that the referee is expected to drink for the sake of politeness. For us, there was a lunch at a hotel for officials from both matches - no wine, (see the photos). The referee's changing room has a computer that the fourth official uses to check registration details, front-row competence and input details of the match. Afterwards the changing room was chaotic, with no downtime for the referee, because all the details have to be entered online withing 30 minutes, including RC and YCs.
Back at my fixture events unfolded in a familiar fashion but with some obvious differences versus the English format…
We arrived at the ground in plenty of time, with the reserve XVs from the respective club’s midway through their game which acted as a curtain raiser. The first point of difference was the front row briefs, which in France entail identifying who has been selected as a qualified front row and asking them whether they are competent to play in that position. The other peculiarity pre-match is that the referee is not allowed to warm up on the pitch, I was invited to the next-door football pitch to complete my warmup!
I had to summon the teams by whistling in the tunnel and then followed the teams out onto the pitch. It was clear that the atmosphere was significantly more intense than an equivalent game in England, with a more boisterous crowd whistling at players when they made mistakes, were under the high ball or even kicking at goal.
Both teams had appointed translators, who helped to translate, and I had learned key phrases to help with live play management. "Sortie", "Plackage", "Lache" and "Aret", along with "NO" and "Joue Joue" saw me through.
There were some interesting law variations, at the scrum once the ball had been hooked both teams had to stop pushing, the tackle height was waist height (although this works within the 'may be penalised' framework), tap tackles are banned (due to risk of breaking collar bones) as was the simultaneous tackle by two players. This meant that there had to be a clear gap between the tacklers making contact if there was a double tackle to reduce the risk of injury.
Another noticeable element in the game was how actively dishonest the appointed linesmen were. On one occasion a flag went up when the ball was clearly not in touch, and at each lineout they consistently tried to steal 5-10 meters for or against the respective team it was awarded to depending on the team they supported.
The players played largely within the values of the game, although there were a couple of pushing and shoving matches across the 80 minutes, as well as some debatably late tackles that needed to be managed. As is expected when it is 1 Vs 3 in the league, it was a very close game with the home side extending their lead to 9 points with the last kick, much to the frustration of the losing coaches.
The feedback on the game from the teams was that the whistle was blown a lot less than usual. It was translated to me that the losing coach actually complained that too much rugby was played!
After the game we enjoyed a reception at our respective grounds with more ham, cheese and smoked duck from local farms before heading back to the MOT for yet another drinks reception with yet more cheese and more ham! By the time 10pm came around both Graham and I were exhausted, ready for well deserved rest (dreams filled with many wines, cheeses and hams).
On Monday morning we returned to Pau for a tour of Section Paloise’s stadium, including witnessing the disparity in facilities in the home and away team changing rooms, and met the community rugby coordinator from Pau rugby. We then went to visit Europe's oldest golf course and for a final walk around, followed by yet another 3 course meal at Sebastian's favourite brasserie in the city (and we could see why this was the case!). Then, it was time to head home.
All in all, it was an incredible weekend. A massive thanks goes to Richard Gordon and Sebastian Abbate from London Rugby, as well as Alexis and Julien, along with the rest of the organisational committee in France for putting together this fantastic opportunity. I would thoroughly recommend applying to go on the exchange next year if you get the opportunity!