For the second year running Novos held a Refs Session, a chance for the players to get an understanding of what the refs are looking at this year. In addition, a valuable opportunity for Rob Vickers to work on his powers of persuasion/Jedi mind tricks before the Falcons season starts.

Dave Charlton gave up his own time to come along and chat with the players during live training about what the refs would be focusing on this year. Dave took us through lineouts, scrums and ruck focus from a refs point of view. It was a great opportunity for the players to speak to a ref calmly and without the chance of a yellow card !

The focus points for the refs appear to be passed down from above and may not be completely relevant for our level. eg, at a ruck situation players should not roll into and impede the opponents scrum half. I think at our level the tackler tends not to roll away in any direction !!

Some of the lineout and scrum chat was very valuable however. In addition, Dave stayed to ref some live defensive work and we hope that it helps us limit our penalty count and broaden our understanding of the laws.

The main reason for the refs session however is to get the players to understand how hard it is to ref. Part of that is realising that they are a very important part of our game. Also, this season we hope our players and spectators will lead the way in the North East regarding how to show respect to the refs at matches.