Andrew Small for RWC qualifier
The first big one
Andrew Small, rugby referee, enjoys travelling, and this weekend he is off to Ricany, a small town in Central Bohemia, to referee a World Cup qualifier between Spain and the Czech Republic.
He is no stranger to the international world. He was born and raised in New Zealand, lives and referees in England and has taken himself and his whistle to South Africa and Canada and into Europe.
But this is the first big one. He went twice to Durban for the Under-19 World Championships of 2004 and 2005 ("ABSA Stadium is a great venue"). He went to Canada for the Churchill Cup and refereed the match between the New Zealand Maori and Ireland A in California.
Now he is off to do a Test, a World Cup qualifier no less, between Spain, who have been to the World Cup before, and Czech Republic who play in the European Nations Cup ("Six Nations B"), a competition above where Spain were last season but will be this season.
Small was born 32 years ago in Ashburton on the New Zealand's South Island, what South Islanders call the Mainland. He was educated at Ashburton College and played for the first team before injury suggested a different involvement in rugby, a route common to many referees.
He started refereeing in I played up to the end of high school and then took to refereeing in while a scarfie in Dunedin and joined the Otago Referees' Society in 1993, where he refereed for five years. He then spent a year with Mid Canterbury Referees Society (1998) and a further four years with the Wellington Referees' Society. In September 2002 he headed for London and joined the London Society, the biggest referees' society in the world. He became part of the RFU's National Panel in 2003 and moved to the Elite Referee Unit (the 14 top referees in England) in 2005.
Small, who lives in Dunstable with his wife Karen, is the head of boys' sport at Chesham Preparatory School, a private co-ed school in Buckinghamshire.
He says of refereeing: "I enjoy the role of the referee as it keeps me involved in the game I grew up with and the opportunities within refereeing are superb. I enjoy almost all aspects within the game, but cold, wet and windy December afternoons test even the hardest rugby people!"
