Polska Rugby XIII has run a successful match official project in Lodz, western Poland. Led by RLEF match official manager Tom Mather and the Ukrainian Federation’s head match official, Denys Cherniev, it also saw Latvian match official educator-trainees Helvijs ViÄivskis, Nauris Baumanis involved, as part of the Erasmus+-backed Training and Education Portal project.
“It was a very useful weekend and showed the progress in a number of our local educators from our first session together in Latvia during the Leadership Devolution Project two years ago,” enthused Mather. “This is an exciting new programme and with the use of video feedback and interactive delivery we are making great strides towards excellence in match officials education.”
The Level 1 course was led by new Polska Rugby XIII educator-trainee Bartlomiej Sierota and Jacek Galeza and was attended by seven participants, four of whom achieved their Level 1 qualification with the other three handed action plans before reassessment.
Sierota said: “It was another great opportunity for Polish rugby league. Some of the participants we saw had the potential to become good level referees. They all now know the rules better and their increased knowledge will lead to the development of the sport in Poland, hopefully quite rapidly.”
Galeza added: “I'm very happy that the participants were so interested in the course and involved in all the activities. I'm looking forward to them starting to referee games.”
The TEP is a three-year, €723.000 investment into capacity building through good governance and technical training, funded by €466.000 from the EU’s Erasmus+ project and the remainder from the RLIF and five of its full members. It is intended to build the knowledge and skills of the RLEF’s 21 European members through high quality training and mentoring.
Pictured: Denys Cherniev takes the candidate through the play the ball.