Metropolitan New York
Rugby Football Union Est. 1967
"Come Play the Game"

Interview with Tom Tani

1. Please tell the viewers of this website who you are and why you decided on becoming a ref.

Hello there, my name is Tom Tani.   I have been the President of the Rugby Referee Society of New York since 1999.  I am a B panel (B3) referee and have been Reffing full time since 1992.  I had my first taste of reffing at the Pan Am Invitational Tournament in Hawaii in 1983 (not a bad place to start anything, let alone refereeing).

Many years ago (in the last century) the Met Union Board asked the clubs to supply players who might be interested in reffing college matches (when not playing for their club) to help address the referee shortage.  I volunteered to do it, and found to my surprise that I enjoyed it!  I still enjoyed playing and being President for my club (Monmouth).  On the other hand, I also grew to love reffing and was starting to wonder how far I could go.  I was told that in order to move up in the reffing world, you have to commit to it full-time.  For many years, I continued to be “on the fence” between playing and reffing. 

The final tip in the scale came when I got married in 1993 and my wife Christine quite rightly mentioned you can only be married to one entity at a time and being “married” to the club (i.e. 2 practices, weekly matches, administrative meetings) was not in the cards. So I said, “ OK, reffing only involves going out Saturdays and training on your own. How about that?”  She agreed and the rest is history.  Little did she know! J

2. What are the major challenges that face the Metropolitan Rugby Union as far as reffing goes?

The main problem that continues to bedevil our Society (and every referee society) is never having enough referees to cover the matches that are out there week to week.   We are able to cover almost all the “A” matches on any given weekend, but we rarely are able to cover “B” matches and many times, the assigned refs for an “A match “double up”.

Clubs have to understand that a referee, like a player, has good days and bad days.  A referee never wakes up the day of a match saying “I think I will f**K things up today”.  They are doing the best they can, like the players.   There is a way to give constructive criticism without being personal and we have a documented process for giving feedback.  We have lost a lot of referees who had difficulties with some clubs and have quit.  Everyone loses.  Happily, referee abuse has been much less of a problem the last few years, especially since the Met Union Disciplinary Chair, Kieran Holohan has done a great job in handling those incidents and the clubs have seen what the ramifications are

3. What is the future of Met NY Rugby Union Reffing?

I will always be an optimist and say the future is bright.  I think the RRSNY had made great strides in the past few years.  With the Internet Age we have been able to modernize many of the administrative tasks that make life easier for the clubs AND the referees.   Our website has been recognized as an invaluable tool and we are always tinkering with it to make it better.  We have enjoyed an infusion of young talent, both on the field and administratively.  However, we will need to avoid being complacent and build on what we have achieved.

Our big challenge is numbers.  We will always need to recruit referees.  The Clubs have always been required to supply members to serve as “club referees” to help out with demands for services.  Some clubs do a great job while other clubs pay lip service to it.  Sadly, while we have trained over 300 referee candidates since the mid 90’s less that 5% have actually refereed.

Referees do not grow on trees and with the development of High School Rugby the last few years, plus the fact that some long time refs are retiring, and finally the continued spotty reply from the clubs in general, it will become necessary to let the clubs know that some of them have to step up or be left out.  That is the purpose of our meeting on February 5^th!

4. What incentives have you put in place, or pushed for with the National Office, in order to make Reffing more appealing to the masses?

A few years ago the Met Union approached the referees with the idea of compensating a referee with $50 for every match they do in addition to the travel expenses they receive from the home club.   We have worked with the Met Union to put in place a game report system where a referee will get this stipend upon receipt of a game report.  This report records the score, as well as any Disciplinary issues.  It has proven very useful not only as a record for billing, but for documenting disciplinary issues.

Having this system in place has helped, but not alleviated the referee shortage.  We still need to get the clubs to work with us in this regard.

We also have the challenge of retaining and developing the referees we do have.  This involves keeping them challenged, developing their skills, and making sure we don’t forget anyone who wants to improve.   We have a development process in place and things have paid off and we have a great corps of young referees who are doing quite well and also are being recognized on the territorial and national level.

5. What do you find more intense, Reffing an 80 minute match or a day long tournament?

Each situation has its own unique circumstances so I won’t pick one over the other.  The challenges facing a referee doing an 80 minute match are plain.  You have to try and get 30 folks to play the game cleanly but also enjoyably.  You usually do not have any “teammates” to fall back on.  You also face the likelihood that at least 1/2 of the folks involved are going to question your parentage from time to time.

Reffing in a tournament finds you facing this situation not once, but several times during the same day, albeit for a much shorter duration.  However, at a tournament, there are other referees around that you can hang out with during the day.  Tournaments are great social events as well as refereeing events for just that reason.

6. Do you ever find yourself in the position of having to ask for out of LAU refs to cover for Met Union matches? And vice versa?

For some of the “Big time” matches (i.e. Super League) in our Union, USA Rugby will assign senior refs to cover those matches.  Conversely, many of our referees have been called upon to travel out of the Met Union for that same reason.

We also have “exchanges” with other societies in the US and overseas where they send a couple of theirs over here to do matches and we do the same.

7. Please tell the readers about the program designed to send young refs up to the National and International level.

In 150 words or less..  When a referee starts, he/she is graded and evaluated at the local level.  The grade starts at “D” (new), and progresses to C3, C2, and C1 “Local” grades.  These referees are coached and evaluated by Society coaches, evaluators and senior referees and their progress is in proportion to the effort they put in.  A C1 referee is one who is capable of handling almost any match in the Met Union.

Promising C1’s can then advance to the territorial, or B panel level.  These referees often travel out of the Met Union to be seen and evaluated at a higher level.   Those that reach the very top in the USA are on the International or A panel.  There are rarely more than 6 A panels at any one time in the US alone.

8. First thing that comes to mind, please tell prospective refs why they should step up to the job

In a nutshell, refereeing is a great way to stay involved in the game, when circumstances such as work, career ending injury, or marriage J, prevent you from playing full time.

The referee is truly the “31^st player.”  Players and Referees actually want the same thing…… to have fun (and not hear from each other as much as possible).  To do that, the referee must have rapport, fitness, and a firm, but friendly application of the laws.  The enjoyment for me has been seeing a different group of players every week and working with them to create a match we all can enjoy. 

You have to like people.  You have to have a healthy ego that will enable you to have the confidence to be the only one in a funny colored jersey controlling the action; yet humble enough to accept any constructive criticism that may be intended to help you get better.  You have to be facilitator, not a dictator.

When I made the move to reffing full-time I thought I would lose my club ties and would miss playing.  However, I found that it was not the case.  I still am a member of my club, and for me personally the challenges and rewards of refereeing for me have been great and I have not missed playing at all. 

I have been fortunate to attain a higher level of achievement as a referee than as a player and have gotten a chance to participate in venues that I would not have had had I not become a referee.  I was fortunate to travel out of the area and make a lot of friends with whom I still am close with to this day.

There is a saying, “When one path closes, another one opens”.  Refereeing is another path you can take when your playing path comes to an end.  If you embrace it, you will never regret it!
 

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