It is not exactly clear what a Scot will have to do to get himself onto the International Rugby Board’s elite referees panel, but the fellow concerned will probably require an IQ of around 180, the aerobic fitness to run 100 metres in less than 10.2 seconds and the ability to recite the laws of the game in seven different languages.
Which seems a pretty tough ask, when all an Irishman has to do is nip out and buy himself a whistle.
That much has been clear since the game’s governing body ditched the derided – but arguably no less effective – system of appointing officials on a Buggin’s Turn basis and decided that refereeing appointments should be based on ability instead. All very well in theory, but in practice the glistening new meritocracy has been as tarnished by controversy as the system it replaced.
Unless, of course, you happen to be Irish. This has been an age of refereeing plenty in the Emerald Isle, a phenomenon that few commentators believe is completely dissociated from the fact that the IRB has its headquarters on Dublin’s picturesque St Stephen’s Green. While Scots have all but vanished from the top-level refereeing scene, Irish officials have had enjoyed high-profile appointment after another. Parade a faintly officious manner in the general area of Grafton Street and the chances are you’ll be handed an IRB contract on the spot.
Which isn’t to say that George Clancy, Peter Fitzgibbon, Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland, the four officials Ireland has on the current elite panel, are particularly bad referees, merely that there is a staggering statistical improbability in such a hefty representation from such a relatively small country. And more staggering still alongside the fact that no Scottish referee has taken charge of a major competitive international – ie Tri Nations, Six Nations or Rugby World Cup – since Rob Dickson was the man in the middle at the Ireland – Italy game in 2002.
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