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| Whistle stop tour By Cpl Andrew Hetherington Volume 11, No. 60, February 22, 2007 |
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Capt Julian Pritchard, a Divisional Officer at ADFA, said he was surprised to be selected to referee at the upcoming competition held April 4-21. “I spent five months last year deployed in East Timor with 3RAR, so that was a big portion of the season that I wasn’t able to referee, so I was very surprised to get the call up,” Capt Pritchard said. “I got a phone call from Australian Rugby to say that they had nominated me and asked if I was available. My nomination was confirmed in January.” To be selected as a referee, Capt Pritchard said each participating rugby country nominates one referee to the International Rugby Board (IRB). “Australia, being one of the major nations in the competition, usually has its nomination accepted,” he said. “To be nominated by Australia you need to be on one of the Australian referee panels and it is very much an order of merit selection process. There are structured panels where we have five full-time referees with Australian Rugby and a couple of part-time contracted referees. “Outside of that structure are the likes of myself and others who want to move into full and part-time positions in the future.” He said for the U19s competition, referee selection criteria was based on selecting referees who had the potential to referee at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups. “The experience will give me exposure at refereeing at an international level and to see if the IRB selectors like the look of me and my skills,” he said. The 27-year-old first started the job while at high school. “I began refereeing junior rugby 13 years ago in 1994 and I gave up playing rugby in my first year studying at ADFA to focus on refereeing,” he said. “I have been taking it seriously since then.” He has also officiated at other national and international competitions and said he enjoyed the experience. “I’ve had the opportunity to referee at a couple of the Sevens tournaments. I was in Wellington in early February for the International Sevens and also have previously refereed in Singapore,” he said. “It was fabulous refereeing in New Zealand for the Fiji and New Zealand semi-final, with a crowd of 38,000 screaming Kiwis. It was pretty special,” he said. “The World Cup will be the first time I will referee at the IRB level.” He also has ambitions to continue his career at a full-time capacity. “I would certainly love to be able to referee at Super 14s level, which is really the next step to take,” he said. “It is a matter of using these opportunities like the U19s World Cup to gain a better profile and really push the guys who are on contracts. “These positions are a full-time commitment, so in the meantime I will make the most of these opportunities. |
