Alain Rolland - Test player turned Test referee
On Saturday, Alain Rolland of Ireland will be the man keeping the Springboks and the All Blacks honest when they meet in Durban, another in the series of the sternest rivalry in world rugby.
To add to the history of it all, the teams are 1 and 2 on the IRB rankings, it is a match which could go a long way to deciding the Tri-Nations and in this year of World Cup each side would like a psychological edge over the other.
He is a small man in a big scrap. But then he was a small man in a big scrap as a player. He won three caps for Ireland and 40 for Leinster and he was a scrum-half, a small man in many big scraps for country, Province and his Blackrock College club. One of the glories of rugby is that it gives big and small an equal place.
Being a scrum-half must have helped his refereeing as most scrum-halves tend to try to referee every match they play in. It’s understandable as they run the same lines as a referee and see the same things. Alain was a particularly “chirpy” scrum-half.
This no doubt helped Alain in his rapid rise through refereeing – that and his sensible mentor.
While Alain was in Cape Town, preparing to run touch in the first Tri-Nations match and to referee the second we had a chance to talk to him about his career.
Alain: “Unlike many referees I was able to have a full playing career, and when I gave up it was my own decision. I was not injured. I was 32 at the time and opted to become a referee. That was in 1996.
“Refereeing has been good to me. In fact, rugby has been good to me. As a player I went to wonderful places and met wonderful people, especially with the Sevens. We went to Monte Carlo, Hong Kong in days before it became as competitive as it is now, Amsterdam and so on. Then the craic was everything. I went with the Irish Wolfhounds to Bermuda with Chris Sheasby, Roger Baird, Jonathan Davies and so on. Rugby was not high on the agenda, but friendship was.
“When you played for Blackrock, Leinster or Ireland it was, of course, more serious. You played hard and partied hard. The evening after the match when you went out with the opposition was great.
“The life of a player was different than. It was just before professionalism came in. Before an Ireland international, you would make your own way as individuals to join up with the team after work on a Wednesday for the first training Then came Eddie O’Sullivan as the game became professional and made things more structured. Initially we found it enjoyable, but that’s when I went to refereeing.”
Craic? It’s a wonderful Irish word that distills many ideas – fun, camaraderie, wit, great company, laughter, boisterous mischief, a jar or two. It is pronounced crack.
Miss playing?
Alain: “I have found refereeing really enjoyable but it’s different from playing. You miss the contact – making a tackle and getting a pat on the back from a team-mate, sniping round the back of a scrum, just warming up for the match with the ball in your hand. I miss the ball in hand. You also miss things like scoring tries and winning competitions. But those things cannot go on for ever.
“Leinster offered me a part-time contract for two years and that would have been it. I had a successful career going as a mortgage broker, and opted for that. There was no way I was going to give up my business career. I was asked to coach wanted to be involved on the field. I then turned to refereeing.
“It has been brilliant. I would encourage more players to become referees.”
But the long, tedious passage through the ranks at a time when many referees start in their teens?
Alain: “When I started refereeing, Owen Doyle started as the Director of Irish referees. He’s been fantastic for Irish referees. There are only about 500 of us in Ireland but till Donal Courtney retired we had three referees on the top 16 in the world and we have three going to the World Cup – Alan Lewis and I as referees and Simon McDowell as a touch judge. If you took the last seven matches of the Heineken Cup this year – quarter-finals, semi-finals and final – five were refereed by Irish referees.
“Owen did not leave me in the lower leagues for long. His idea is that if you’re good enough, your old enough. He believes that if a referee is any good, he has to get going early. As a result we have several young referees coming through – into Magners League and Heineken Cup. It took me just three years to be refereeing my first Test.”
That was Wales vs Romania in 2001. He did his first Six Nations in 2002 – France vs Scotland at Murrayfield and his first Tri-Nations in 2003 when New Zealand massacres South Africa 52-16 – and that at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. He does not keep track of his games, he says, but has had “about 20 Tests”.
Alain: “It’s not like playing in that you are alone out there. Your mistakes are obvious. In a team there are 14 others to cover for you, but not when you are refereeing. Thankful refereeing is becoming more and more of a team exercise – the referee, his touch judges, the television match official and others. We prepare together, are open with each other and get to learn how each one works. We get on well with each other.
“Not that refereeing is not competitive. You still want to get the ‘big tickers’ but you also want to support each other.”
“It’s a great privilege to facilitate games like this. And the game is about the players. The referee can never be bigger than the players.”
The big occasions?
Alain: “I love the anthems. That match at Loftus was right up there with the best of them for intensity. This year I did Wales vs England at Millennium Stadium with the roof closed. Then anthems were incredible but the greatest of them all was at Croke Park this year when England played Ireland.
“There was all the drama and the history of Irish resistance to the English, Hill 16, the first time at Croke Park, the home of Irish games, the heart of Irish culture.
“The President of Ireland met the players and it seemed a lifetime as she walked off. The Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern was waiting for her and gave a hug and a kiss, and the crowd erupted. Then came the anthems. The crowd gave ‘God save the Queen’ respect and there were a lot of English in the crowd to sing it. Then came the ‘Soldier’s Song”. I have never heard it sung like that. It was incredible.
“And the game stood up to the occasion.”
His last refereeing was a month ago, but he sees the break as a positive thing.
Alain: “Owen makes sure we get rests. You can’t go out there week after week. It gives us a chance to concentrate on our jobs and to enjoy family time.
“After all refereeing demands more than just the time on the field. There’s gym and diet and meetings with referees and coaches and so on.”
Alain is not a full-time referee. He has a “proper job”. In fact there are no full-time referees in Ireland though they have three development officers.
Alain: “I wouldn’t like to be a full-time referee. We get paid a retainer – salary, if you like – and get match fees. But I have a career which keeps me working, even now when I’m away from home, but it means that I don’t need to have an exit plan. I have an occupation after refereeing.”
Unlike southern hemisphere referees, the Irish referees do not have to travel much. In Ireland he does not need a night away from home and to go to France is not hard either. In fact, going to France is easier for him than most. Born and resident in Dublin, his father is French and he speaks the language with ease. His full names tell it all – Alain Colm Pierre Rolland, born 22 August 1966.
