News Bulletins

On Sunday August 27, 2006 the Florida Rugby Referees Association will be holding a Level One Referee Course. The course will be held at the Senate Chambers, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Boca Raton, FL.

The course is open to everyone. I would be especially pleased to have as many player & coaches attend just for the information aspect. They do not need to qualify as referees & as such they will not be required to pay the course fees.

If you wish to attend please email me, Gerry, so I can get an idea of the number of student packages I will need.

Instructor(s) = Gerry FitzGerald
Contact = Gerry FitzGerald rugbyreffl[at]aol.com | Cell: 754 245 0215

Time = 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Cost:
1) Course fee is $100.00
2) Students must be CIPP compliant for current year
3) To become certified as a referee, students must pay Referees and Laws Committee dues of $25.00 (Note: Based upon the action at the R&L AGM July 28 and 29 in Columbus, OH, this probably will no longer be a requirement in the future)

At the L1 Referee clinic you will receive a law book and course materials. After the clinic concludes, you must complete and pass a take home exam. Before the exam will be marked, you must have paid CIPP and Referees and Laws Committee dues online at https://register.usarugby.org. Once you pass the exam, you will receive a whistle and red/yellow cards to help you start assembling your kit.

The Level 1 Referee Course is the basic course. It covers the referee's priorities, provides an introduction to the Laws, and examines scrums, ruck/mauls, tackles, lineouts, offside, and advantage with focus on the critical parts and how to referee them. When a student has completed this course, and the accompanying test, they are ready to begin refereeing safely. However, this is just the first step in a referee's education, but it is the necessary beginning. The course by itself is useful for coaches and players, in addition to the primary goal of starting people as referees.

The course does not go through the Laws page by page. That is left for the student to accomplish with the take-home test. The test is required for those who wish to become certified. The test contains 100 questions, 15 of which are designated as "safety related". To pass the student must get all of the "safety" questions correct and an overall score of 95. The test must be submitted to the National Office for grading within 90 days of taking the course. Students that do not pass will be given opportunities to retest. The objective is to ensure Law knowledge, not to weed people out.

FAU is on Glades Road, just East of I95, in Boca Raton. For more specific directions, I suggest you use an internet mapping program such as Mapquest.

Finals of the Men's Florida Cup will be held this Saturday December 3rd at 12 noon in Kissimmee. Daytona will be playing Tampa Krewe.

This will be part of a great weekend of rugby. The National Allstar Championship (formally the ITT's) will also be held this weekend starting Friday. I encourage all Florida Ruggers to try and make it out and see some of the finest Rugby Players in the nation compete.

Saturday will also be the Florida Old Boys Championship. There is plenty of rugby for everyone this weekend. Below is directions and Hotel information. I hope to see you all there!
I want to thank Brendan O'Mahony and the Orlando Griffins for hosting this event.

Mark Etue
President FRU

Florida Old Boys Championship Saturday December 3rd

Here is a map to Austin-Tindall fields in Kissimmee .......

The Austin-Tindall Fields are in Kissimmee , just below Orlando and only 15 minutes to the airport.