Scots move on Lisbon
A team of three Scots is moving on Lisbon to act as match officials in the European Nations Cup match between Portugal and Georgia, the Lobos against the Lelos with the Lelos expected to win.
Georgia top the competition while Portugal are fifth. Both are teams which went to the World Cup and garnered much respect.
The three Scots, a referee two assistant referees, are all men of experience and will probably be glad to escape Caledonia icy and frozen for warmer Lisbon even in the expected rain.
The leader of the Scots is referee Neil Paterson – Neil John Stewart Paterson, but better known to friends as Paddy, born Belfast on 9 August 1975. So he really is an Irishman, educated in Belfast at Sullivan Upper Grammar School, a large coeducational, non-denominational grammar school in the original Holywood which is in Northern Ireland.
Then he stepped the short way across the water, to Dundee University where he qualified as a dentist in 1999. He is not married – yet. Last December, with a weekend off refereeing, he and his fiancee went across to the City of Lights which is also the City of Love and there in Paris they became engaged to get married. It seems a match made in heaven – or at least at Murrayfield for his fiancee, Louise, is an orthopaedic surgeon in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who does medical duty for the rugby club in Aberdeen. She will understand rugby and even a referee!
Paterson first played club rugby for Malone and stayed with them even when in Dundee trekking back for matches. Later he played for Dundee High School Former Pupils.
Paterson started refereeing in 2003 and has made rapid progress, refereeing his first premiership match in 2006. His first Test was the European Nations Cup match between Spain and Czech Republic in 2007 when Spain won 42-15.
In 2007 he also refereed at the IRB’s Under-19 World Championship and then went off to Wellington, New Zealand, and San Diego, California, for the IRB Sevens World Series.
This Lisbon match is another step up and Paterson says: “This is a very important game as it is another building block, step on the ladder to moving up in the international game.”
Help en route to Lisbon? “People who have influenced me are Bob Easson from the local society, Roy McComb our referees manager, every assessor I’ve had and, of course, Jim Fleming.”
Role models? “I don’t have any role models – just try to be myself and try to pick up good points and avoid bad points from others I see.”
He and his two helpers, Iain Heard and Alan ‘Trees’ Forest, travel from Scotland to Heathrow and then on to Lisbon.
