‘There’s no privacy for referees – I hope that each union has a psychologist’
Tony Spreadbury, European officials chief, on pressures of non-stop scrutiny, and the need to keep simulation out of rugby
‘I’m 60 now,” burrs a beaming, bespectacled Tony Spreadbury. “Can you believe it? Fricking 60!” The unmistakable West Country accent bounces with equally distinctive enthusiasm. Spreadbury may be five months into a new job, having left the Rugby Football Union to become European Professional Club Rugby’s head of match officials, but his passion for refereeing remains undimmed.
That must be comforting for those under his supervision. Frankly, elite rugby union is a tough place for referees. Laws are constantly tweaked and minuscule margins divide incidents that merit a sending-off and those that do not even require play to stop. Scrutiny is intensifying, too.
“Back in 1990 when I refereed Australia-france, if you weren’t watching at three o’clock in the morning then you didn’t see what was going on,” he says.
“Now, there’s no privacy for this group of referees. We’ve just got to be mindful of how we support them. I hope that each union has a psychologist working with them because for the younger group of referees, [social media] is huge. They’ve been brought up with it, so we have to adapt to that to help them.
“I’m a dinosaur with it all – Faceache, Twitter – but it’s out there. And it’s not the refs that are the problem. It’s their families that get affected. I don’t know what the answer is. It’s a work in progress.”
A flurry of 20 yellow and red cards marked the first leg of the last16 round in the Champions Cup last month. Referees have been told by Spreadbury to “stay on-task” with head collisions ahead of this weekend. But ripple effects and unintended consequences represent occupational hazards for them. Spreadbury is “100 per cent” aware of how a can of worms could be opened.
Dealing with a diving epidemic in rugby would be particularly tricky. “We don’t want to follow other
‘If players start rolling around with their hands over their face, that is not what we want’
sports with simulation,” Spreadbury says. “I think we’re in a good place at the moment. If players start rolling around with their hands over their face, that is not what we want. We need to be very careful on this.
“Rugby’s a contact sport, and someone’s reaction [to contact] may be a result of a knock previously. I always say to the referees, ‘Don’t put your balls on the line, lads.’
“We’ve had players going down at line-outs and medics have come on because of a previous knock. We’ve got to be careful of saying, ‘Get up, come on, you were only going down on your knee’. Actually, they might need to go off for an HIA [head injury assessment]. It’s not easy.”
Following a transformative 20 years at the RFU, Spreadbury can already point to tangible milestones in this role. There has been an exchange programme, with referees and television match officials overseeing games in foreign competitions. Mathieu Raynal, the Frenchman who takes charge of Saturday’s Champions Cup quarterfinal between Leicester Tigers and Leinster, was appointed to Harlequins’ win over London Irish at the end of March, for instance.
Spreadbury has also established an EPCR refereeing academy for the “next cabs off the rank”. He sits in on the reviews of their matches.
Teams are allowed to send in a maximum of eight clips per match to EPCR and Spreadbury “boxes off ” each match before the following Wednesday. The two-leg clashes of the last 16 presented a challenge, as will the week-long turnaround between quarter-finals and semifinals, because he does not want to finalise selection in advance.
“In the past, we’ve appointed two rounds [at the same time],” Spreadbury says. “What happens if a referee has a shocker? We want to make sure we’ve got the right referees in the right games.”
It is a fair point. After each European round, Spreadbury sits down with four colleagues – Gary Welch from the RFU, John Lacey from the Irish Rugby Football Union, Andy Macpherson from the Scottish Rugby Union and Marius Mitrea of the Italian Federation – for “an audit of what’s right and wrong” before ranking referees’ performances.
Spreadbury remembers his early attempts to engage with fans during his on-field days. On a mild evening, he wore a fleece to a supporters’ evening at Kingsholm before pulling it off to reveal a Bath shirt to 150 Shed Heads. You can picture the grin.
Years later, a desire to celebrate refereeing is as strong as ever. Thankfully, the sense of humour has remained intact as well.