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Paul Hull gets 'one of the most crucial roles in the English game'
Ex-England full-back Paul Hull will succeed Tony Spreadbury as the new RFU head of professional game match officials, a position that became available when the long-serving Spreadbury decided to take up a similar role at EPCR covering the Heineken Champions and Challenge Cup. Capped four times by England, Hull was a one-man club career player for Bristol where he stayed on as a coach after making 289 first-team appearances. He then rose to the position of head coach having started in the academy, while also enjoying a spell coaching the England Saxons.
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In recent years, Hull has been director of rugby and housemaster at Prior Park College in Bath, a role he combined with his work the last seven years as a citing officer, an interest that paved the way for him to agree to succeed Spreadbury at the RFU. He will formally take up his new role at the end of the academic year.
Hull said: “Although I’ve been away from the professional game for a time, my involvement and passion for rugby has continued in my role at Prior Park College: a role I have thoroughly enjoyed and the decision to leave was tough.
“Through my work as a citing officer, I have got to know many of the match officials and as discussions about the role took place it became clear it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. I am extremely excited to be taking on this new position. I will be joining a talented group of match officials, who are amongst the best in the world. I am very much looking forward to joining them in the summer to see how far these accomplished officials can go as a group and individually.”
RFU performance director Conor O’Shea added: “We have worked hard with PRL, Tony and others, including Wayne Barnes, to identify the person we believe will move us forward and, in Paul, we feel we have a person steeped in the game, who will understand officiating from a coaching perspective and will challenge the officials in a different way.
Rookie Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli is poised for an atmospheric Champions Cup debut at Castres versus Harlequins 11 months after the pandemic denied him his originally scheduled maiden outing at that level…#Harlequins #HeinekenChampionsCup #CASvHARhttps://t.co/DOk5S0Q7nm
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 10, 2021
“In the short-term Phil Winstanley and I will support Chris White, Steve Leyshon and Gary Welsh and we hope this group will form part of the longer-term strategy of the match officials’ technical development when Paul joins us full time at the end of the current season.”
Premiership Rugby director Winstanley said: “This is one of the most crucial roles in the English game and we need to have someone who can challenge and develop our existing and future match officials. We believe that Paul’s background will introduce a new perspective into what is a group of world-class officials and coaches, and we believe that he is the right person to take this group to the next level.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments