THE DAYS OF referees being the least fit people on a rugby pitch were over some time ago, but two top-level officials have explained the lengths you must go to in order to be able to keep up with the action.
IRFU referees Chris Busby and Eoghan Cross joined Murray Kinsella for this week’s Rugby Weekly Extra, a podcast for subscribers to The 42.
“When I started off refereeing I was still the same size as I was playing,” said Cross, 31, a Young Munster club man, “so that was a challenge that I had to overcome. I started refereeing All-Ireland League, in my first season, I was still 16 and a half stone, 105kgs.
“What you realise is that every second breakdown doesn’t cut it anymore, when you’re in a pod system as a forward do you get me? It’s every one, you know.
“And I think aesthetics is a lot, particularly when you move up the levels, looking the part is like a non-negotiable almost now.”
Cross added: “Between my first year in the All-Ireland League and the second year I just said, ‘Right, if I’m going to give this everything, I need to change how I look. So I went hard after it and lost the bones of 20kgs.
“We’d always say to referees, no matter what level you’re reffing, you need to be as fit as the players to be giving a fair crack of the whip to everyone. If you’re off the pace the players aren’t getting a fair shot.”
Cross said that in the modern game the ref is covering more ground than potentially all players accept scrum-halves.
Busby, from Antrim, said that in the World Rugby group to which he has graduated, referees are tested across “four windows: bronco tests, body fats taken as well, counter-movement jump and then speed test.”
He said he’d done a bit of running before becoming a ref but “to get to the required level has been a “real adjustment for me”.
“Some of the guys in World Rugby are in incredible shape, some (Christophe Ridley) are running broncos in 4.20. I think Bracey (Andrew Brace) can jump about 60cm on the counter-movement jump.
“It’s competitive at the top end of that World Rugby group, Bracey, Moe Chaudhry, Craig Evans, they really pace each other as well.
“The reality is you’ve got to look like you belong on a rugby pitch.”
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