Dickinson: Super Experienced

Stuart Dickinson of Australia has refereed 46 Tests matches and mop re Super Rugby matches than any other referee, 88 or more Super Rugby matches. He is certainly resilient – and still enjoying it, despite the slings and arrows that go with the job.

In 1996 Super 12 started. Go and look at some of the referees – André Watson, Paddy O’Brien, Scott Young, Tappe Henning, Colin Hawke, Wayne Erickson, Steve Walsh, Ian Rogers, Andrew Cole, Peter Marshall and, on 29 March 1996, when ACT beat Natal in Canberra, Stuart Dickinson.  Sixteen years later Dickinson is still refereeing Super rugby, the only one of that group with unbroken service.

He was there in the days when referees refereed only in their own countries, then only abroad and now in a mixture of the two based on merit.

Rugby has, he says, been wonderful to him – taken him all over the world, brought him into contact with different cultures and peoples, given experiences that have been a part of his growth as a person and making friends for him all over the world.

All over the world? Refereeing has taken Dickinson around his own country, Australia, and then to New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, the Six Nations Countries, Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has refereed great teams and great matches in great competitions – three World Cups, the Six Nations, the Tri-Nations and to two Commonwealth games – 1998 in Kuala Lumpur and 2002 in Manchester when he refereed the Final of the Sevens.

Dickinson says: “It’s wonderful. My hobby has become my occupation and I am paid to see and learn about the world.”

Of course, it all comes at a price. The price includes years and years of dedicated training, studying and application, developing the skills to be in the top few in the world of refereeing and it also means sacrifices for the family.  He started refereeing at the age of 12 and so has been doing it for 31 years. He has been in top rugby for 16 years and has worked out that he has spent a total of five years away from home in those 16 years.

Inevitably that makes demands on the family. He is full of praise and admiration for his wife Fiona, a school teacher by training, but really the mother of twin daughters and a son. But in his days as a full-time referee he was able to spend all his home days at home and was there when each of his children took their first step and said their first word.

Dickinson has been preparing for life after rugby. He now has two degrees, most recently a masters in sports management and he has been working part-time for the Australian Rugby Union and as a sales manager for a travel company, Adventure World, an official travel agent to the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It has acquired a luxury cruise liner, the ms Volendam of the Holland America Line to take and accommoate  people from all over the world who wish to attend the World Cup in New Zealand.

Not that Dickinson is looking to retire all that soon. After all he is now only 42 and exceptionally fit.

Dickinson has not been South Africa’s favourite referee though some of that displeasure has abated somewhat in the wake of more recent defeats that have found other referees as targets for their wrath, most recently Alain Rolland who was popular enough when South Africa won the World Cup Final in 2007 – a match in which Dickinson also played a part. He was the TMO that was required to rule on Mark Cueto’s ‘try’ early in the second half.

Rolland had asked him the question: “Is there any reason why I cannot award a try.”   Dickinson had done his preparation for his task but there were problems –  no slow motion, no freeze frames – none of the things Southern men were used to. It took a long time but eventually he was able to tell Rolland that Cueto’s foot had slid into touch before he grounded the ball.

Then there were no South African voices raised against Dickinson, but lots of English ones. It is, after all, part of a referee’s fate that a team will lose and the losing team will not like the referee. The more often you referee a team, the more often it is likely to lose and the more often you are likely to be blamed.

The South African attitude to Dickinson is really unfortunate because he loves the country, loves coming to the country and has many, many friends in South Africa.

He is philosophical about it, believing that he has done his honest best to referee fairly so that when the day is done he can look in on himself without reproach. Mistakes he has made and those he is willing to acknowledge but always he will be striving to create a safe environment for players, an environment in which they can showcase their skills, an environment  that is fair to all, the contest a fair one.

He understands that there are people who want to sell newspapers and that perceptions are often formed by newspapers. He also knows that being a decision-maker, as referees are, unpopularity is inevitable as there will always be people who oppose a decision made. It is interesting when somebody inveighs against Dickinson to slip in a little question: “Do you know him?”

He says that he is happy “as long as the players are still respecting you.”

Rugby has taken Dickinson to its greatest stadiums – Twickenham, Murrayfield, Suncorp in Brisbane and – for him the greatest – Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. He likes the custom-built South African stadiums with the crowds close and obvious. And he refereed the last Six nations match at the old Lansdowne Road/ Clearly history and tradition make an big impression on him.

It has given him a multitude of great on-field experiences. Those that stand out for him both happen to concern South Africa – his first Tier 1 Test, South Africa vs Wales in 1998 and the Lions’ tour to South Africa in 2009 when he was a touch judge in the first two Tests and the referee for the third Test.

Of course Dickinson is a great rugby referee. To have got to the top of his profession as he has and to stay there as he has done for 16 years he must be an outstanding referee. Otherwise he is a super con man, able to con good and experienced me for for 16 years.

Dickinson has found his journey through refereeing a wonderful journey. “I wonder what the journey would have been like had I not become a referee.”