Just attended a really well organised and well run U9’s Rugby Tournament at Pentyrch RFC where my lad was playing. However, without wishing to come across like Rasie Erasmus, i was bitterly disappointed by the Referee in one of the games! The Referee in question happened to be the Coach of his Team. In my view was biassed! His team were a very good side and clearly much better than the opposition, so this is not in any way taking anything away from his team but he ensured his team had pretty much all of the ball, all of the time! There was an instance when, on one of the very few occasions the other team had the ball, he allowed one of his players to rip the ball (this is not allowed) whilst he called ‘play on!’ The problem is he was completely one eyed with no empathy for the game or the development of players from both sides. Whilst I do get laws are laws, and should be adhered to, surely, at this age group, a Ref can cut them some slack, for example if there is a slight forward pass or small loss of control at the tackle, then allow the team to go through their 6 tackles….Don’t continually push one team back in defence to allow space & time for your team to play but then allow your team to swarm all over the other team when they are starting their possession of the ball….Don’t continually coach your team and advise them how to play and not the other. The end result was a big win for his team and the losing team feeling despondant and of a low esteem. It left me feeling very sad and wondering if The WRU Community Rugby guys should re enforce a better culture by encouraging Key Influencers at the Clubs to ensure there is an empathy for competition element of The Mini & Junior Game?