Book Review: Stuart Dickinson's World Cup diary

Stuart Dickinson, one of only a dozen referees chosen to referee at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, has published his diary – life from a referee’s perspective and it contains one chapter that could be a part of rugby’s history and rugby’s planning.

Great.

It’s a word that Dickinson uses often in the book and it could well refer to several things.

It is a symbol of the author’s attitude to everything – the game, refereeing, his friends, the experience, his colleagues, the tournament, the French. Stuart Dickinson is the most positive of people. There is nothing nasty or petty in what he says. As with all sportsmen there are disappointments in the two months of the World Cup, especially in not being chosen to referee any of the knock-out matches, but he manages to slough off the disappointment and find so many positives in the matches he was involved in, especially as the video referee in the final.

The World Cup was great in all its aspects – as a rugby tournament, as an occasion, in its organisation – in the sheer class of the event. That is obvious from what Dickinson has to say.

There was a great match – the match between Fiji and Wales, the last match which he refereed at the World Cup and one which he describes as “a magnificent and historic occasion”.

Then there is the final and his decision early in the second half. South Africa were leading but England broke out and went left to Mark Cueto who dived over in the corner. The referee referred the matter to the TMO, Stuart Dickinson. The end result was that he advised that Cueto’s left foot had touched the touch-line before he grounded the ball and so a try should not be awarded. The world knows that though there may be some, like those who believe that the earth is flat, who refuse to believe the evidence, and part of the evidence is a photograph to back it up.

The decision was a big one but the way Dickinson had to battle to arrive at the decision makes the story fascinating and should not be spoilt by bits of revelation. The book is worth it just for that description and that description should become a part of rugby history.

That there was a battle with technology at all in such a tournament is silly, and Dickinson, clearly a well prepared and thorough man, had had problems with communication in this regard before – a TV producer who could not speak English and a liaison man who could not speak English and a TMO who could not speak French!

Oh there are down sides – the long two months away from family, his mother’s illness, the disappointments, the relief of being able to break from French cuisine to get beef and veg.

For the reader it is an easy read, though at times what Dickinson does not say can be annoying. We know Tammy’s mother’s name but not the name of a try-scorer or a sin-binned player or a generous host. We are told that some events were funny but not what made them funny. In other words we could have done with more. Then there is the France-New Zealand match with no mention of a forward pass. It was the bog controversy of the World Cup. One understands loyalty and respect for colleagues but silence does not make a credible contribution to the heated debate.

The book varies in what it sets out to do. Sometimes it is just a record of what happened next – travelling about, training, matches. And some times it is explanatory of the procedures of being a referee at the World Cup. It’s interesting to learn that referees have feelings and what they feel, what they do preparing for matches, what they do at the field and what they try to do on the field. It’s all there.

Because the book serves two purposes – general information and personal recollections – the style wobbles between two stools and something as simple as the tenses gets confused.

Sadly, it has no index.

But at the end of it you like Stuart Dickinson all the more and like his fellow referees who clearly got on well together. They were all great. We admire the great job that they did at the great World Cup. And if you had half a thought of becoming a referee you would say: “What a great idea.” You would want to achieve what Stuart Dickinson achieved.

Title: The Rugby World Cup Diaries
Subtitle: A Referee’s Inside View
by Stuart Dickinson
Published by New Holland Publishers (Australia) and in South Africa by Zebra Press
176 pages
2007
16 pages of colour pictures
ISBN 978 1 77022 029 4