The life and time of referee Irishman Alain Rolland.

The life and time of referee Irishman Alain Rolland.

Alain Rolland – “Yes, your there to make the decisions but your there to facilitate. The players want to play, you want to referee, spectators want to watch and you don’t want to be spending the whole afternoon blowing the pee out of the whistle.”

Irishman Alain Rolland, had one sport on his mind and in his blood Rugby. Growing up Alains parents travelled around a far (is it supposed to be fair?) bit, eventually they put Allan in a rugby dominant school in Blackrock to pursue his Rugby Dream. Allan first started in Rugby as a prop forward but by the time he reached twelve he became a halfback.

When Alain was playing the game it was amateur, Alain balanced having a good job and also being a good halfback which paid off for Alain as he was selected to play for Leinster going on to be selected to play for Ireland toward the end of his career in 1990. Alain describes making his debut for Ireland as being a special moment but at the same time gave him a very fair look at what can happen in life. “It was very special, there was a guy who I was playing Rugby with who had unfortunately tragically had been killed in a car crash three days before my test debut. I think the thing that stands out the most for anyone who makes their test debuts is being presented with your test jersey when you go into the changing room. It’s all very special having everyone out and going onto the pitch beforehand soaking up the atmosphere of the crowd, putting on that jersey, being a part of that changing room, running out and hearing the national anthem.” When the game started turning fully professional in Europe in the 1997/1998 season, his club side Leinster wanted all their players to sign contracts. Allan decided that it was time to call an end to his Rugby career because he felt that he was “too old, I had a good job and I wasn’t interested in giving up my job, getting a contract for a year or two and then have to try and restart a career after that.”

On one Sunday afternoon, Alain went to watch a game of lower grade Rugby between Blackrock and Landsdown where Allan got into refereeing purely by accident. The Landsdown manager saw Allan in the crowd and asked him if he would be interested in refereeing the game as the referee didn’t show. Allan at first has very hesitant because he didn’t want to referee against Blackrock, but Roy convinced him to referee the game and everything went from there. “Although some would argue that I refereed every game I played, playing as a number nine, it was the first time I had a whistle. I just really enjoyed it, the guys really enjoyed it and the performance reviewer took a stroll down from watching somebody else on the pitch, he saw me and we spoke. Then the head of referees made contact with me and as they say the rest is history, so it was just purely by accident.”

Not long after that Alain refereed his first international match between Wales and Romania at Cardiff, which he says was a great experience as he had Irishmen as he was able to travel to the game with Irish officials. “It’s completely different for your first test match as a player because you’re very much on your own, or you might be with one or two people as opposed to being on a bus with about thirty people. So, behind your preparation and everything is slightly different but it’s more just excitement and being in a position to do it. It’s a very proud moment for you and your family and here we are, my first test match was only three years after I first started referring. It happened very quickly and I went out and did a pretty good job.”

When you watch a Rugby game, you see the referee blowing the whistle to penalties that don’t make sense to you or blow the whistle to something you haven’t seen before. Allan feels that 90% of the time he was blowing the whistle on the same infringement every game and felt that as a referee his job was to judge on materially and does that action affect the game. He felt also that sometimes it was a good thing to forget some of them. “To me the biggest thing is judging on materially, does that action of the player really have a negative effect on what happens next? Does it prevent a contest for possession? Does he get an unfair advantage because he is in an offside position? So if the answer is yes, well then you have to penalize it, if the answer is no then don’t. That’s the key getting the balance between materially and technically.”

As a Rugby player, you would train together as a team and your coach would set out the game plan and the coach would want you to inforce it. As a referee he felt that the main difference was that you are the captain of the officials that are refereeing the game so he would meet and travel with together with his officials and explain to them how he was going to referee the match. They would be at the ground roughly ninety minutes before the game so they can do the pitch inspection, deliver their message of expectations to each side and a control (sound) test.

One thing that made Alain a good fair referee was creating a fair playing field and in doing so it made him one of the more respected referees that have been involved in the game in the past twenty years. “It was very much my philosophy all the way through I was there to facilitate rather than assassinate you want to work with them rather than be seen as someone who is out there to get them every time if they do something wrong.” One thing that made Alain unique was the fact when he went into each team’s dressings room to run through what he wanted to see in the game. He would tell the teams if you do this you will get penalized, if a coach made a comment about how they would approach a situation Alain would explain what he would do or go back in and say to sides be careful of x, y or z. “So as a matter of courteous sometimes when I’m speaking to the opposition look I’ve noticed that your number eight could sometimes have a tendency of perhaps detaching from the back of the maul. If he does the mauls over and two things can happen I can tell him that he will have to move it or alternatively the opposition could come and take him, so I am just making you aware of that. So you always try to be fair and then if they raise something about the opposition, I’d make it my business and go back into the changing room and say look just by the way you just need to be careful that they are going to do this or that.”

One of the highlights of Alains career was refereeing the 2007 World Cup final between England and South Africa at State De France. Alain sacrificed a lot to get to this stage in his career, spending lots of time away from family, training and traveling all over the world to make his dream a reality. Alain found out this decision at the World Cup quarter final stage and at the same time he was in the middle of home extensions so he was glad to head away from France for a few days to take a break from the world cup. “I remember the police escort and the bikes that took us to the stadium, we got to the stadium and it was all decorated differently for the final. Then to see the trophy at the middle of the tunnel it all became very real. The one thing I remember is really when I kicked the game off I will never forget the flashlight flashes from all the phones as Jonny Wilkinson kicked off from the halfway line. When I blew the whistle I knew it was real and here we go game on but when you went into the game mode you were just concentrating to make sure that you were getting the decisions right.”

Alain went from the high of refereeing the 2007 World Cup final to being booed, threats and critized for many months after sending Welsh captain Sam Warburton from the field in the 2011 World Cup semi-final against France, where the Welsh lost 9-8. Many fans and Rugby analysis felt that he shouldn’t have been sent off, including Welsh fans and Alain understands that some Welsh fans will not forgive him for sending their captain off but to make the game safer, that’s something you have to do. Even though some referees can make bad calls, referees are used to being heavily criticized by media, players and the coaches something that Alain was relaxed about. Alain said that a few days after the match Sam Warburton came to him and said that he agreed with his decision. “Which was a fantastic decision for the game because a lot of people that were concerned with not letting their kids play if an action like that was to be allowed in a game. So, Sam coming out and saying that look yeah it is wrong and kids shouldn’t be doing things like that was really important for the game of Rugby. Also it’s a credit to the man that he actually is because it’s highly respectful of him.”

Sometimes when you watch a game of Rugby, an area of the game that is all over the place, is the scrums. You see the scrum collapsing with it taking minutes to reset, players deliberately arguing with the referee about something that the opposition is doing or too many penalties are given away. Alain feels that scrums depend on how the teams go into the match. If they  go in with a positive attitude there aren’t that many problems. However if it’s a negative attitude then it’s generally a long day. “We have you judge on materiality and for us to judge on materiality we have to kind of paint pictures, see what pictures we are seeing and how certain pictures would have certain actions and outcomes. So, scrums are no different, you plan for them and how you approach them if they don’t go and you try and work with your touchies as well. You’re on one side and he will be the other and as a team you try and work together to try and see if there are any illegal actions so you can stop them, hopefully get them right and change player behavior”. One thing that was not clear in scrums sometimes was what did the penalties mean. All Alain was aiming for was to change the players behavior, which he did well as he explained exactly what he wanted to see from the players. However he did admit that if he had to just continue to penalize a player he wasn’t afraid to send a player off which forced a new player on which changed the attitude of that team. Alain felt that during a lineout, touch judges were able help share the workload and point out extra infringements that happen during the game. “You try and work together as a team to see if there is any foul play as a team. If he also happens to see that the ball hasn’t been thrown in straight, he can give you that information then you can take that information from him as well”.

Throughout Allan’s career, he refereed matches that involved the All Blacks at home and abroad. As an All Blacks fan you knew that when he refereed the All Backs match, it was going to be a fair contest, no side would be unfairly penalized out of the game and it would be a good flowing game of Rugby. Alain remembers clearly refereeing his first Tri-Nations match between New Zealand and South Africa in Pretoia, one of his most complete refereeing performances he has produced throughout his long and brilliant career. “The All Blacks were on fire against South Africa that day, it was an absolutely incredible performance. Some of the tries that were scored, the skills, offloads everything it was just amazing. Carlos Spencer was on fire, Doug Howlett at the back was breathtaking and Joe Rokocoko over on the left wing was mesmerizing. There were just so many things you know and I suppose being my very first tri-nations game I had never experienced anything like that previously. I was pinching myself during the game thinking jeez am I really here, it was absolutely unbelievable. I had a couple of games like that, but that for me stands out the most.” He also enjoyed games that had to them going into them and I enjoyed refereeing a lot of teams in so many ways “You look at the rivalry between France vs England and South Africa vs New Zealand. Each game has its own history, and look at the rivalry between Wasps and Leinster in the Heineken Cup. New Zealand in New Zealand was a special place to referee as is South Africa in South Africa and France in France. They all have their own specialties if I can explain it that way rather than picking any team.”

As one of the best referees the game has seen in the modern era, Alain has refereed many games throughout the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Rugby fans in both hemispheres feel that  their style of Rugby is better than the other. However Alain doesn’t see the gap that other fans do. He feels that the scrums in the south have a different meaning than what they do in north. “Sometimes teams in the north, they are going into a scrum with the view of ‘we want a penalty kick out of this. So we will do whatever we have to do to get a penalty kick out of this’. This forces their  opposition to do something particularly if they are dominant to do something illegal to stop the scrum from advancing. Which forces the referee to have to give a penalty kick for that play. In the southern hemisphere are the opposite. They are quite happy to use it, trying to get one up on their opposition but it’s more getting the ball back into play and working it that way.”

There’s an old saying, all good things must come to an end and in 2014 Allan decided to retire from all refereeing in 2014. The year before in 2013 he spent twenty-six weeks away from his family and as a loyal family man and a man who refereed in three successful world cups, Allan had to make a difficult decision “Did I want to spend another two months away from home, I had started thinking does this world cup as a 49-year-old where they going to seriously consider me in the knockout stages as a 49 year-old”. He also felt that working in a financial services company as a broker he noticed the market collapse drastically. So he felt that by retiring from refereeing in the end of the 2013/14 season it would allow him to follow through on the idea of working for himself. “I had a few ideas work wise but if I had left it until after the world cup I would have taken a big risk as to whether it would have paid off or not. That’s where it was two years out to make the decision and I wanted to get out on my terms rather than being pushed out the door.” By making this tough decision it allowed Allan to spend our time with his supporting but understanding family. He felt privileged and rapt that he was able to finish his refereeing career with the 2014 Heineken Cup where the result.

Today, Allan does works with a couple of Rugby Unions and world Rugby where he is able to give his expertise on the game. When you watched a game of Rugby that Alain refereed you hardly noticed him on the field and that is something he is trying to pass on to young aspiring referees. “As I say to some of the young referees is you’re not on the field to show the players how well you know the rule book, you’re there to show them how well you can use it.”

He also works with another business partner running management training programs which help people move from middle management to senior management. “In addition to that I do a number of corporate company presentations for staff and clients just on certain areas. We look at: decision making under pressure, communication, conversations for performance and feedback. So I give them insight as to what I have found during my time as a referee as to how businesses can take certain things from a sporting environment and put it into the boardroom to make them more successful. It’s quite varied and the best thing is I’m working from home, so I’m able to spend more time at home. I still travel an awful lot but when I’m home I’m home which is nice.”