From Super player to Super referee

Glen Jackson will make his debut as a Super Rugby referee on Friday when he takes charge of the match between the Hurricanes and the Force in Palmerston North. Less than two years ago he was playing top rugby.

Jackson played for the Barbarians and the New Zealand Maori and played 60 Super Rugby matches for the Chiefs before going off to Saracens for six years. He ended there in 2010. While he was at Saracens he was the English premiership's Player of the Year in 2007, and he started on refereeing.

As he was coming to the end of his playing career at the age of 35, he planned ahead.

Lots of retiring players go to coaching; Jackson thought of doing something different and thought about refereeing to extend his career in rugby. And so, the player at a North London club, joined the Hertfordshire Referees' Society north of London.

Then there was the planned move back home to New Zealand at the end of the English season and correspondence with Lyndon Bray who is now the SANZAR's man in charge of referees but then was in charge of New Zealand's referees, and so an entry strategy was prepared for Jackson, the former player.

After two Heartland matches last year he was appointed to matches in New Zealand's provincial championship and he was on the way. This year he has been acting as an assistant referee - in 13 out of 14 rounds so far - and now, after a meteoric rise, has been appointed to referee his first Super Rugby match.

rugby365.com writer Paul Dobson spoke to him:

PD: What was your attitude to referees when you played?

GJ: "I was a flyhalf and so was close to the play and I challenged the referees during the match but always tried to have a beer with them after the match. The relationship was not good on the field but good off the field."

PD: How have you found referees since becoming one?

GJ: "They are a good bunch of men who enjoy being involved in the game and trying to make it a better game.

"I have found the hospitality to referees phenomenal. I have just come back from three weeks in South Africa and had a great time. I went there eight or nine times as a player, but in a team everything is in-house. As a referee you are left on your own and can do your own thing. There is the chance to meet people and go to their homes."

PD: How have you been brought into refereeing in New Zealand?

GJ: "Lyndon Bray must take a lot of credit. My career has been a quick surge and initially it was frowned on in some quarters. But, fair play to New Zealand, they supported me. Now there are other players and past players who are considering a career in refereeing.

"When I first told team-mates that I was going to become a referee, they laughed. They thought I was crazy. But that has changed."

PD: What has surprised you about refereeing?

GJ: "The amount of preparation referees make and the effort that has to be made.

"In many ways it is a thankless job. If you get it right, nobody notices because it's just a part of your job, but get it wrong and you become a villain. Players can make a mistake and people are quiet about it and then if they do something brilliant, they are applauded. If a referee makes a mistake he is no good and no number of fantastic calls can make up for it. You have to develop a thick skin.

"I am surprised that people think referees cheat. There is simply no time to cheat, not as you try to deal with the complexity of the laws.

"Players get down time during a match but the referee has to stay mentally strong for 80 minutes.

"And physically there is a lot of running."

PD: How has your knowledge of the laws changed?

GJ: "I have found the detail of the laws surprising. There are so many of them. We did our law exam last week and luckily I passed. As a player, I thought I knew quite a few of the laws but now I realise I didn't know many at all."

PD: Who helped you along the way?

GJ: "Lyndon Bray, of course, and Bryce Lawrence. Bryce and I were in digs together after leaving school and we live in the same town. I turn to him for advice more than most. But I found the Super referees generous with their time."

PD: Has been an assistant referee helped?

GJ: "Yes. It has been so interesting to see you referees like Craig Joubert and Stu Dickinson prepare for matched. But being an AR is in itself a taxing job. It's like being the first slip in a cricket Test. You do nothing for ages and then there is the one crucial chance."

PD: What are your ambitions?

GJ: "I am competitive and like to have a goal. The World Cup is in England in four years' time. I'd like to be at that. I must just make sure I don't mess up?"

PD: Are you pleased with your choice of refereeing as a career?

GJ: "Oh, yes. I'm happy with the choice and hope that it can encourage others to choose refereeing as well."