Sunday afternoon saw the climax of a great career on the World Rugby stage as Craig Joubert took the whistle for the 200th and final time at the HSBC London 7s. The match in question was the Cup semi-final between Fiji and Ireland which the south sea islanders went onto win, 38-12.
Here are his immediate reflections, speaking to World Rugby TV, but we also managed to grab 15 minutes a little later to record the next issue of the Advantage Over podcast which will come out next Thursday (14 June). We talked about how the 7s game is attracting a new breed of referee, and his ambitions for the future in his new role as WR Referee Talent Development Coach. Subscribe now so the edition downloads as soon as it’s live!
Sadly, yet predictably, the social media trolls have come out in force, but we hope RugbyReferee.net readers will recognise a great referee who has given so much to the game, been through the highs and lows, and learned a lot from both of those. We all wish him well as he takes those experiences and hands them on to the next generation of World rugby referee.
Craig Joubert hangs up his whistle in London ! Takes me back through some wonderful rugby memories.
Back in 1997 I was an RFU Ref coach/assessor (boundaries were blurred then) and was sent from Yorks to Kendal to watch the first game in UK of a promising ref from SA. Guess who !
He and his colleagues were scheduled as guests at a North Training Conference at Trinity & All Saints College (near where I live) soon after. BUT the conference and accommodation was cancelled as it it co-incided with Diana’s funeral. So we had excellent weekend guests ! The spirit of rugby spread even further as my son (keen rugby man) met up with Craig in London and later in NYC. What a game, what a community.
What a great story David! Rugby is a great community