Keep Your Boots On!

Explore our handy interactive map to find a referee society local to your area or county. Visit their website and follow them on either Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Click on Area A, B, C or D and a list of the societies will appear.

Check out our the Match Official’s Update. This monthly newsletter containing all the stories and goings on across the country, as well as all the happenings within the Match Official Development Team. Access all the editions using this link.

As a society, recruiting new match officials is crucial. Here are a few resources for ideas on how to go about recruiting, retaining, and rewarding your volunteers.

Here’s a couple of resources to get you thinking how best to recruit new volunteers into your organisation!

Everyone shares the responsibility for safeguarding and creating safe environments in rugby union whether as a parent, coach, spectator or club official.

All should operate within an accepted ethical framework and demonstrate exemplary behaviour to both safeguard children and protect all personnel from allegations of abuse or poor practice. Children, which is anyone under the age of 18, must be cared for in the correct manner, as set out in the RFU Safeguarding Policy.

Just as clubs do, societies can ensure that they safeguard their members. This can be done by putting systems in place such as safeguarding officers, DBS checks and regular training to ensure that we are creating safe environments in rugby union.

*Note: Search virtual courses to find Introduction to Safeguarding

Mental wellbeing is just as important as our physical wellbeing. As match officials, it is important that we look after our mental health to ensure that we stay motivated and enjoy our hobby!

Our trusted healthcare partner, and lead RugbySafe sponsor, Simplyhealth, is working with the Mental Health Foundation to keep the rugby community healthy by promoting healthy discussion around mental wellbeing and signposting those who need it to expert advice.

Visit RugbySafe Toolkit 9: Mental Wellbeing to see the work that we are doing to ensure good mental health within the rugby community.

Physical fitness is an important part of match official performance. A match official who has an appropriate level of fitness for the game will be more accurate, more mentally sharp and ultimately enjoy the fixture more than one who may be less physically capable.

For Societies to run fitness tests for their officials, below you will find some guidance around set up, procedures and results to gain consistency in your testing sessions.

Find key society documents to help with the day to day running of your refereeing Organisation or Society.

Here you will find listed all of the judgments from RFU disciplinary hearings around the country. There is also an archive of judgments from previous seasons coming.

If you require further assistance with locating a specific judgement, please contact the team via disciplinerfu@rfu.com.

For yellow and red card report forms, please visit TOOLKIT 7: REFEREE RESOURCES

The Rugby Football Referees Union (RFRU) is a National Constituent Body of the Rugby Football Union and aims to support the processes needed to provide the highest quality match officiating to Rugby Union.