Ref follows in Dad's footsteps

As a female rugby referee, Chelsea Gurr must be prepared for all manner of situations.

For instance, like the time a cheeky 10-year-old asked her for her phone number. It happened several years ago after she had refereed the curtainraiser to a Nelson Bays representative match at Trafalgar Park. She still laughs about it today.

But the now Christchurch-based whistleblower does not have too far to look for some on-field advice.

A referee for the past seven years, 23-year-old Gurr is the daughter of Nelson Bays referee Paul Gurr and was in town at the weekend to officiate in Friday's senior B club match between Stoke and Waimea Old Boys at Greenmeadows.

That task successfully accomplished, she then ran the touch as assistant referee to her father in the main division one game between the two clubs.

"I played netball my whole life, really, and I guess I just got a bit sick of it," she said.

"I'm a pretty competitive person and was in a social team and thought it was about time I did something else."

She had considered playing rugby but of only diminutive stature, thought better of it.

Instead, she "followed dad to a referee's meeting", caught the bug and has been refereeing ever since.

She has had no problems adapting to a largely male-dominated environment and said that her gender might even sometimes be to her advantage.

"In all honesty, I think the sideline's a lot more tame with me on the field. I just think [the spectators] probably mind their ps and qs a lot more.

"Different teams do different things. Some of them will be a wee bit standoffish and others will try to test me right from the very start. But 10 minutes into the game, they don't really worry about me."

She's been refereeing since 2003, officiating for two years in Nelson before heading to North Harbour for another three years and finally to Canterbury for the past three, where she's an open-graded referee, primarily controlling colts rugby.

She refereed last year's Christchurch women's club final and was an assistant referee in the women's NPC final between Auckland and Canterbury in Christchurch. She's been a member of the Canterbury Referees Academy for the past two years.

While attending Nelson College for Girls, Gurr was awarded the Special Achievement in Sport Cup in 2004 for her achievements in rugby refereeing.

She's been included in the national women's referees squad for the past two years and has attended camps with the Black Ferns and last year attended a camp for the men's national referees squad.

Gurr's main goal now is to officiate at the women's World Cup in 2014, the women's sevens World Cup and in men's division one club rugby in Christchurch.

Of more immediate interest is to referee age-grade representative rugby matches.

- © Fairfax NZ News