JP Doyle has been named as Scottish Rugby’s High Performance Referee Coach. The newly created role has been put in place by Performance Director Jim Mallinder as part of the recent departmental restructure. Doyle will oversee Scotland’s four full-time referees – Mike Adamson, Ben Blain, Hollie Davidson and Sam Grove-White – as well as working closely with High Performance Match Official Manager, Andy Macpherson and the wider refereeing team around developing Scotland’s wider officiating pool. He will also be responsible for Scottish Rugby’s Referee Talent ID programme.
Doyle began his refereeing career in 2001 heading up the English rugby ladder to become a full time referee. He officiated 180 English Premiership matches, three in the Six Nations and refereed at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Since leaving the RFU in 2020, Doyle refereed and worked as a refereeing coach in the United States in Major League Rugby (MLR) and as a part-time teacher at Craigclowan Preparatory School in Perthshire.
JP Doyle said, “Throughout my career I have always had opportunities to be involved in coaching and being from an educational teaching background for the last 15 years, this role mirrored perfectly where I wanted my career to go.
“The refereeing department within Scottish Rugby is already successful so this is a brilliant opportunity for me to develop that and put further structures in place to what is already working well.
“My main focusses from the refereeing side will be help develop the technical side but also the human element. To achieve long term success it is critical that our referees maintain positive relations across the game in order achieve success.
“Like every team in sport you have to build and develop so another key focus of my role will be around Talent ID. I’ll be out looking at who is coming through the refereeing pathways but also engaging with players and coaches within clubs as that will be where we’ll find a lot of our talent going forward.”
Performance Director Jim Mallinder said: “Having a man of JP Doyle’s experience coaching our High Performance refereeing team will be of great benefit to match officials across Scotland.
“All four of our referees have been rewarded recently with appointments in high-profile matches, particularly Mike Adamson who has been involved in this year’s Guinness Six Nations.
“JP’s experience will be invaluable in helping their development but also ensuring that there is a strong pipeline of referees coming through the ranks.
“The technical knowledge he will provide will be invaluable in driving forward Scottish refereeing across the board.”
