Donal Walsh Memorial Services
Sunday, April 30, 1 pm
Veteran’s Memorial Center, 203 E. 14th Street Davis CA
From Dr Bruce Carter,
Donal Walsh died earlier this month.
Donal was a stalwart of our Society for many years, and those in Davis will have seen him on the touchline with flag in hand almost right up to the present.
He will be remembered for doing something that has proven exceedingly useful to many hundreds of thousands of people, including presumably everyone who reads this, and that can never be done again. How many of us will have that said about them?
Donal was the first person in the world to put the Laws of the Game into readable form. He was given the Denis Shanagher Award for these things, which is the USA Rugby Referee Hall of Fame by another name.
When I bought my first law book (1977), it was by mail order from the NCRRS. The society published essentially the only usable law book in the world, and the society was funded entirely from the profits.
Before Donal, the Laws were published by the RFU. Rulings and amendments were issued from time to time. The text of laws that were amended was not changed: the amendments and rulings were merely appended at the end. So, when you read a law, you then had to go through all of the rulings and amendments to see whether anything had been changed. And you had to go through all of them, covering many decades, because they were arranged chronologically, not by law.
These were hundreds of full-size pages, due to the fact that nothing was ever taken out. Learning the Laws of the Game was like learning the US Legal Code.
Donal got permission from the RFU to compile and edit it all into coherent form and for the Society to publish it in a paperback, pocket-size edition. I don’t believe we even paid royalties, because the RFU hadn’t been making anything from it.
Any time someone reads the Laws, a thought should be spared for Donal Walsh.
Game Management Guidelines
2017 Game Management Guidelines are published for 15s (including a separate HS document) and 7s to enable referees, referee performance reviewers, referee coaches, players/teams, coaches, and administrators to have a clearer approach to the game and improve consistency in application of Law throughout the country, while also reflecting directives from World Rugby.
Referee Fees
The referee fees for fifteens are $75 per side per match. Fees are calculated by multiplying the number of games your team plays by $75. This includes all league, non-league, “friendly”, B-side, etc. matches regardless if they are “Home” or “Away”.
Teams hosting matches involving teams not located in Northern California Rugby Referee Society area are responsible for the visiting team’s fees (i.e., the host pays for all non-Northern California teams).
A check or money order for fees should be made payable to “Northern California Rugby Referee Society” and sent with a copy of the team’s schedule of games. Additionally, teams must email their schedule(s) using the following spreadsheet(s) to:
pelicanrefs@gmail.com.
Use this spreadsheet template available at:
http://pelicanrefs.com/
Fees for prior seasons are past due and subject to administrative fees. Payment for the upcoming season must be received by the NCRRS no later than February 1 or may be subject to a $100 administrative fee. Match fees considered “past due” will result in the NCRRS sanctioning the team by not assigning a referee to any further of team’s home or away matches (i.e., League, Non-League, or Tournament) until the fee is paid in full.
Note: If your team currently has an outstanding balance from previous seasons, you must immediately contact Dan Wilson (danwilson@pelicanrefs.com).
Send payment and schedule to:
Dan Wilson
511 Omaha Ave
Clovis, CA 93619
Questions regarding billing invoices should be addressed to Dan Wilson:
danwilson@pelicanrefs.com
CONTACT UPDATE
Please review your club(s) contact information at:
http://pelicanrefs.com/contacts/club-contacts/
Send updates to pelicanrefs@gmail.com
USA Rugby Membership Registration:To register for any role with USA Rugby go to www.usarugby.org and click on the red REGISTER button at the top of the screen.