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UR: How did you get into refereeing?
MP:
As a PE teacher in Downshire School I
was always involved in refereeing children’s
games, even when I was still playing for
Academy. This made the transition from player
to referee quite an easy one to make and it
was probably helped further by the fact that
an old knee injury from my days playing at
Ballymena RFC was starting to cause a few
problems.
My only regret about getting involved in
refereeing was that I didn’t do it sooner as
there are so many fantastic opportunities
for young guys to do well, which can lead to
a potential career for those that show real
promise.
UR: Are you looking forward to refereeing
the most anticipated domestic game of
the season?
MP:
To be appointed as referee for the
Schools’ Cup Final is the absolute pinnacle
for any referee domestically in Ulster. To add
in the fact that it is the very first one held in the
completed Kingspan Stadium makes it even
more of an honour.
UR: What challenges do you face
refereeing such a hyped up game?
MP:
For me, I think that this is going to be one
of the biggest challenges on the day itself.
With two sets of players and coaches who
have literally put nearly every other aspect of
their lives on hold in pursuit of reaching the
final, it is so important in terms of my own
preparation, that nothing is left to chance.
Schools’ Cup rugby for the bigger schools has
pretty much become professional rugby in
every aspect apart from getting paid. Training,
video analysis, nutrition and rehab have all
helped to create a level of rugby which seems
to be getting closer and closer to that which
we see on TV, and when you add in the size of
the crowd that is likely to be there along with
the opportunity to play on live TV, it’s clear
that we are going to be managing 40 or so
extremely highly charged young men!
UR: What do you think of the standard
of rugby that these two teams have
produced in this year’s run up?
MP:
Although I haven’t refereed either team
this year some of the feedback I have received
from other referees about their ability has
been incredibly complimentary. I did referee
Campbell College back in January against
a huge and extremely talented team from
Clongowes Wood in Dublin. The Dublin team
have been one of the hot favourites for this
year’s Leinster Senior Schools Cup and to be
fair to Campbell, they were really unlucky to
lose this match by one point in the very last
play of the game. If Campbell aren’t even
contesting a semi-final with a team of that
quality then RBAI and Wallace should be
something else.
UR: What are the differences between this
and senior rugby/professional games you
have officiated?
MP:
As I‘ve already mentioned, in my opinion
there is very little to separate what we see from
the top schools in the Province and what we
see on TV. In many ways it’s possibly better
as you often see more flair in schools rugby
and this is often discouraged by professional
coaches looking to play a style of rugby which
is all about aggressive defence and minimal
errors.
UR: How do you prepare for a game like
this?
MP:
As I am refereeing or assistant refereeing
nearly every weekend there is constant
preparation going on in the days leading up to
a game. Hopefully by this stage of the season
and with so many games under my belt, my
law knowledge should be pretty sound – it
is more about preparing mentally for the
unexpected.
Sadly it is rather common for me to use the
three or four hours driving to Cork/Limerick
for a All Ireland League Division 1 game to be
saying out loud what I should be saying to a
player in any given situation. Doing this along
with visualising certain scenarios, I feel gives
extra confidence to know that I will hopefully
say or do the right thing when under intense
pressure. Something which probably all of
the top referees need to live by is the mantra:
‘Fail to prepare – prepare to fail,’ and this has
definitely helped me throughout my career.
UR: What ref you most admire?
MP:
George Clancy – one of the world’s best
and someone who is hugely dedicated to
improving himself in every game.
Neil Robertson – one of Ulster’s finest (so he
keeps telling me!!!)
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
MARK PATTON