USA's Henshall makes reffing history

The USA’s Chris Henshall has had his first IRB appointment to a Test match – Canada v Russia on November 28. This is the first official IRB Test appointment directly from the IRB for a USA Rugby Referee in four years.

Henshall has been on the USA Rugby Referees National Panel since 2004, and has methodically worked his way to the top where he has refereed the 2008 and 2009 USA Rugby Super League Finals, England Counties versus USA and Canada selects in 2008, Ireland ‘A’ v Argentina ‘A’ at the 2008 Churchill Cup, USA v Munster in 2008, and the IRB North America 4 in 2007 and 2008.

The replacement of the NA4 competition is the Americas Rugby Competition (ARC) in 2009, where his performance afforded him the Test appointment from Paddy O’Brien with a good report from the Scottish Rugby Union IRB assessor.

While Chris was appointed to the match between the Netherlands and Switzerland in 2007, this upcoming November match marks two top-20 nations in a top level Test.

Chris started with rugby at just five years old and played throughout his school years, captaining his team in Scottburgh, South Africa.

In his early 20s, he moved from playing to refereeing and was part of the Natal Sharks refereeing set-up under Phil Botha in the 1990s. In 1995, he was awarded the ‘Rookie of the Year’ Award. Moving to the Lions in Johannesburg in 1997, he moved further up the ranks to the top of their territorial level.

Work had him relocate to Germany and eventually the USA in 2003. As USA Rugby Referees have become a more structured unit in the past few years, it has enabled referees a solid environment to progress to higher levels.

Rugby is still characterised as an amateur sport in the USA and thus the time and effort that referees dedicate to the game is mostly self-driven. It takes special character to be motivated at all times and to ensure that you perform at the top levels of world rugby. Chris’s success is not only attributed to the dedication of many individuals at USA Rugby, but also his family who have stood by him tirelessly.

Chris’s goal is to spend the next six or seven years representing USA Rugby referees at Test level with opportunities to stay on the IRB radar for top fixtures – including two upcoming Rugby World Cups and a range of other exciting opportunities.

USA Rugby has recently restructured their efforts with High Performance Referee Manager, Richard Every, in addition to Referee Development Manager, Ed Todd, under the leadership of Nigel Melville. As a former SARU and USA panel referee, Richard Every brings a wealth of knowledge and a world class standard that has already made an impact to USA Rugby Referees.

Christopher Robert Henshall was born on 10 June 1970. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Stacey and their three children, Abbey, Katie and Dean.