{"id":80074,"date":"2019-05-29T09:51:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T14:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=80074"},"modified":"2019-05-29T21:56:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T02:56:20","slug":"never-undermine-the-sir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/never-undermine-the-sir\/","title":{"rendered":"Never undermine the ‘Sir’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Louis Ricard<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Sports fans and athletes have a few things in common. They\u2019re both pulling for their team to win. They both tend to think they\u2019re better than their opponent. And they both have a love-hate relationship with referees.<\/p>\n

Those wearing the stripes have haunted fans and athletes for as long as organized sport has existed. But rugby is different. In rugby, they\u2019re not referred to as referees.<\/p>\n

Rather, it’s \u201csir.\u201d<\/p>\n

While rugby is growing in America, so is its officiating body. With no full-time paid referring jobs and growing expectations from fans and players, it\u2019s hard being the individual holding a whistle in the midst of 30 people fighting over a ball. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Referees have to teach the game at the same time they moderate it because younger age groups haven\u2019t necessarily grown up watching, playing or hearing about the sport. Todd Ayer, a well-known rugby referee in the Chicago area – especially at the high school level – often encounters new players to the game that need help figuring out their role on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy the teaching aspect of it,\u201d Ayer said. \u201cI think the reason parents and fans don\u2019t yell a whole lot – I hate to admit this – is because they don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayer often takes the time to walk over the bleachers to answer any question parents or curious fans may have regarding certain rules or the general premise of the game.<\/p>\n

Rugby referees are also on their own.<\/p>\n

One referee for two teams willing to do whatever it takes to win. No assistant, no video replay and decisions needing to be made in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always easier to ref from the sidelines or from the couch,\u201d Ayer said, \u201cbut when I\u2019m keeping up with the play, there can be some shenanigans going in the back that I just don\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, when Ayer does see some shenanigans, he is not afraid to blow his whistle. But unlike other sports, he doesn\u2019t hear the player yelling in his ears and getting into his personal space. He brings the player to the side along with his\/her captain and explains his call.<\/p>\n

That mentality originates with international competitors who have been coming into the United States and transferring the culture of rugby to locals.<\/p>\n

One of those is Martin Dunn, who moved to the U.S. from Ireland just over 10 years ago and now oversees the Chicago Rugby Referee Society. Dunn says that it all comes down to education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always the old adage that rugby is played by barbarians, but when everybody\u2019s off the \u00a0field, it\u2019s a respectful game,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody just went to enjoy the game, the crowd will cheer for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn says he grew up on those core values of respect, sportsmanship and love of the game. It\u2019s something he\u2019s tried to pass down to the younger generations since his arrival in the U.S, and he\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n

Ayer says that throughout his rugby journey, he has played with people from all over the world who taught their teammates how to play the game the right way, and that included how to talk to the sir. Ayer\u2019s captain was from New Zealand, and always told his team to come to him instead of going to the sir, and that he would bring up any issues or concerns with the referee personally, which is how the rugby hierarchy works.<\/p>\n

No one talks to the sir unless it\u2019s the coach or the captain.However, rugby in America is growing faster than the game\u2019s culture, and the rewards of playing the game can get in the way of the development of the culture, says Michael Ziegler, a Chicago Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers are getting bigger, faster and way more skillful and smarter\u201d Ziegler said. \u201cReferees need more exposure to these types of games because it will only elevate them as an official as well.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, simply, we just need more of them.”<\/p>\n

Learning from experience is what every rugby referee has to do, because they do not do it for money, fame or power. In most cases, they do it for the same reasons Ayer and Dunn do: To give back to the sport that brought them so much.<\/p>\n

And while rugby referees will always occupy a special place in the sport, their growth and development is as vital as the players\u2019, if not more.<\/p>\n

Because without the sir, there\u2019s no match.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: A referee officiating a high-school JV state championship in Berwyn, IL. (Andre Toran\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Louis Ricard Medill Reports Sports fans and athletes have a few things in common. They\u2019re both pulling for their team to win. They both tend to think they\u2019re better than their opponent. And they both have a love-hate relationship with referees. Those wearing the stripes have haunted fans and athletes for as long as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":543,"featured_media":80119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,4741],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-spring-2019"],"yoast_head":"\nNever undermine the 'Sir' - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/never-undermine-the-sir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Never undermine the 'Sir' - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Louis Ricard Medill Reports Sports fans and athletes have a few things in common. 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