Edinburgh Rugby Supporters Club

[Arlene]

Some of the northern hemisphere's leading coaches and referees were on the same side in Dublin yesterday when they met in Ireland for the second annual ERC Match Officials' Conference and Forum.

Guy Noves, who led treble Heineken Cup winners Toulouse team to their fifth tournament final earlier this year, former England and Lions coach Andy Robinson - now in charge of Edinburgh - and Gloucester's Dean Ryan as well as Sean Holley from the Ospreys and Paul Turner from the Dragons, were some of the delegates at the one-day conference in Wicklow.

The conference, convened by Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup tournament organisers ERC, addressed the challenge of ensuring high standards and consistency of officiating at the highest club level across eight countries.

Coaches from each of the participating countries were invited to be participants in the Conference and Forum to share the European clubs' perspectives with regard to refereeing at European club level and join a delegate list that included the 20 strong European referee panel and the Referee Managers and Referee Performance Reviewers from the six Unions.

Among the referees were some of the world's leading officials - such as Alain Rolland, Alan Lewis, Nigel Owens, Joel Jutge and Chris White.

The conference agenda included the development of future European Match Official's, a focus on refereeing the scrum, the application of the IRB Protocols and ELV's which will be in operation for the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup this season.

An additional element of the Match Official's Conference see the panel of Referee Performance Reviewers use the Top 14 clash between Stade Français Paris and Brive as a practical case study to develop consistency among all reviewers.