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The coach with a whistle
Most coaches referee age-grade matches without a refereeing background, and without an assessor to tell them how it went. Dan Cottrell and Keith Lewis set out what to look for, what to say and when to blow the whistle.
The tackle, and the breakdown that follows it, happens around 100 times in a match. Nothing else comes close. Referee that area well 90% of the time and the game will run. The scrum you were unsure about, the forward pass you missed and the lineout that never quite worked are all secondary to it.
Let’s look at how you manage the game, the breakdown and everyone else!
How much should you coach?
A referee who talks constantly stops the game flowing. It is the most common complaint coaches make about referees who are also coaches: the game kept stopping while everything was explained.
The distinction is between coaching the situation through and teaching the game. “Tackler, move.” “Release.” “Stay on your feet.” Each of those exists to keep the game going without a whistle. Explaining the law behind a decision, mid-match, does not.
How much you say should match the fixture. On a training Sunday, a friendly or a round robin, working players through situations is part of the job. In a league or cup game there are points or a knockout at stake and the game needs to flow. Say less.
Refereeing your own team
Refereeing a match involving your own team, you know half the players well and half of them not at all. Handle that deliberately.
Get two names from the other side before kick-off, with the captain and pack leader as a minimum. Use only those. Call your own players by position or number: “centre, that was high”, not “Harry, that was high”.
This is about what the touchline hears. A referee using first names for one team and numbers for the other appears to be coaching one side, whatever the intention.
Keep one name in reserve for a situation that needs an instant response. A name gets a reaction that a number does not.
Why “consistent” is the wrong word
Referees are judged on consistency, and it is a misleading standard. Nothing else in a match is consistent: not the players, not the conditions, not the phase of play.
“You are not refereeing tackles one, two, three, four and five the same way. You are refereeing tackle one and tackle nine the same way, because they are the same picture.” Keith Lewis
What you are being consistent about is the picture in front of you. Same area of the pitch, same dynamics, same contest, same decision. Tackles two and three may look nothing alike and should not be refereed alike.
That reframe gives you a usable answer at half time. Not “I was being consistent”, but a plain description of what you saw and why you played on.
Where you stand
Position is about influence. You need to be close enough to affect what the tackler, the ball carrier and the arriving players do, which means within shouting and seeing distance, around 10 metres. Refereeing from 30 or 40 metres away is a coaching habit, and it does not work with a whistle.
Start at six o’clock, directly behind the ball. Move to four or eight as you get more comfortable. Point your chest at the corner flag rather than the touchline: at 45 degrees the breakdown and the defensive line stay in the same view, with the offside line behind you.
If anyone is watching you referee, ask them for one thing only: where you stood. You cannot make a decision about something you could not see.
Sixty seconds with the coachesChat to the other coach before kick-off. Four questions and one request:
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Step 1: The tackler
What you want: the arms come off the ball carrier, and the tackler then moves away from the ball.
The read: where they landed decides whether they also have to roll. If the ball is on their side, or they are lying across it, they must move. If they landed clear of it, they can simply get to their feet.
What you call: “Release.” Add “roll away” only when their body is the thing in the way.
When you penalise: they hold on to the ball carrier, or they stay across the ball and stop it being played.
Why it is first: nothing else at the breakdown can be judged until this is resolved. The ball carrier cannot legally do anything while still held.
Be at your strictest here from under 10s upward. It is the behaviour that changes fastest when it is penalised every time.
Related Files
Step 2: The ball carrier
What you want: once the arms are off, the ball is made available: placed, presented or released.
The question that sets the time: is a defender genuinely contesting the ball? There is no count. There is only this.
If yes: the ball has to come immediately. A carrier holding on while a defender competes is denying a contest, and rugby is a game of contests.
If no: nobody is being denied anything. Let the carrier turn, find support and pop the ball up. That is a skill worth rewarding. Two seconds instead of half a second is not an offence.
What you call: “Release.” Or, when nobody is competing, “no one there,
play on.”
At half time this gives you something to say: “No defender was anywhere near the ball, so I was happy to let it go.”
Step 3: The arriving player
What you want: weight on their feet. Hips back, head up, carrying their own bodyweight, whether they are competing for the ball or securing it for a team-mate.
The test: take away what they are leaning on, whether that is the ball, a team-mate or an opponent. If they would fall over, their weight was never on their feet.
What you call: “Where’s the weight?”
or “on your feet”.
When you penalise: off feet at the breakdown is a free kick up to under 14 and a penalty from under 15.
Judging intent: a player who slips on a wet pitch and gets straight back up to do something positive is not offending. A player doing it repeatedly is not slipping.
Young players copy the elite game, where players hold unusual positions through core strength they do not yet have. Referee what is in front of you, not what is on television.
Tackle height
What is the right tackle height?
The sanction line is the base of the sternum, roughly where a player carrying properly with two hands holds the ball. Above it is trouble. On or below it is usually fine. This is law across the community game, not a trial.
The cue to look for, and the language to use with players, is head in the same headspace.
Set your standard in the first game of the season and hold it. Loosening off is easy; tightening back up mid-season is close to impossible.
Watch the ball carrier as well. Tacklers have come down, so a carrier who drops late and low creates the same head-on-head contact, and the sanction is theirs.
- A tackler’s head in the ball carrier’s headspace is a good indicator of a high tackle
- Where the ball carrier normally carries the ball is a good indicator of where the sternum is. If a tackle is above the ball, this is definitely a high tackle
Managing the sidelineCoaches stand inside the rope, so they are covered by law and you can sanction them. Spectators stand outside it, and you cannot.
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New this season at under 14
Try line dropouts now apply at under 14. A ball carried into in-goal and not grounded for a try, held up, or tackled into touch or over the dead ball line, is a try line dropout, as is touching down after the opposition kick it in. The 22 dropout remains for a failed kick at goal and for a kick from the field of play that goes dead untouched. The 50:22 does not apply until under 15.
Keith Lewis hosts the Advantage Over refereeing podcast and is a respected global law advisor.
Dan Cottrell
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