Ulster School's Cup Final

MAN IN THE MIDDLE MARK PATTON

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. 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 UR: What challenges do you face refereeing such a hyped up game?

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

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