+ 'A week in the life of a referee'

The week before the match

This week I'm refereeing a level 6 exchange (out-of-County match) at Banbury RFC. It'll take me an hour to get there and because I'm on exchange I know I'll have a Match Official Developer there watching me and providing a report to my Society.

The home club contacts me by at least Thursday to confirm kick off time. I ask them to confirm the kit colours for both teams to make sure there isn't a clash.

I also take the opportunity to check the relevant league table to see where the teams are positioned in case this might add to tensions during the match - is one team fighting for promotion or to avoid relegation? Are they close to each other in the table?

I also look up the last match report between the two teams, in case there's any relevant 'history'. If this was a particularly important game to me I might also ask my referee Whatsapp group to see if anyone there has had them recently.

Match day - morning

I wake up and have a light breakfast of orange juice with muesli and fruit. I know that I always suffer from dehydration after matches so I drink a pint of water.

After breakfast I go through my kit bag to make sure I have everything - yellow/red card wallet and scorecard, whistle and spare, watch, pencils, coin, shirt, shorts and socks. The Society shirt is reversible so clashes are unlikely, and anyway I already know what colours the teams will be wearing.

Kick off minus 3 hours

I eat a lunch of pasta three hours before the match to give the carbs time to get where they need to. This is fine for a 3pm kickoff, but if it's much earlier then pasta earlier in the day isn't always the nicest!

Kick off minus 2.5 hours

Time to leave the house now. For matches of level 7 and above I aim to arrive at the club 1.5 hours before kickoff (8 an below, an hour beforehand).

Kick off minus 1.5 hours

I arrive at the club in shirt & Society tie and drop my stuff off in the ref's changing room. First job is to find the coach or captain of each team and ask when they want me to check studs and do my front row briefings. I take a note of the captains' names and positions so I can find them easily on the pitch.

I make sure I'm there for the briefings just before the agreed time - refereeing is about making and maintaining a good impression, and this starts as soon as you arrive at the club.

I fit the briefings around my own warmup, and check the pitch thoroughly for standing water, hard ground, proper markings/flags and dog poo or anything else dangerous to the players.

When both teams are out warming up I grab both captains to do the toss and deliver my captains' briefing.

Kick off minus 5 minutes

I knock on the teams doors and tell them "5 minutes until kick off". Then at 2 minutes I'll knock again and say "2 minutes, let's go."