ARU honours Australian Test Referees

The Australian Rugby Union today honoured 21 Australian Test Referees at a capping ceremony in Brisbane, with a further 17 referees being capped in Sydney tomorrow.

The decision to formally recognise the role played by Test Referees by presenting honour caps to all Australian Test Referees or their families was made by the ARU earlier this year and follows the capping of all Wallaby Test players, which began retrospectively in 2002.

Earlier this year the ARU began attempting to contact all Australian Test Referees or the families of referees who officiated an international Test match from 1899 onwards, to invite them to attend the capping ceremonies.

At today’s ceremony, held during the Bledisloe Cup Lunch at The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, nine referees accepted their honour caps in person from ARU President Paul McLean, while another 10 referees were represented by family members (two referees were unable to attend).

Australian Test Referee Warwick Cooney, whose father Ron, a Wallaby and Test Referee was also capped today said the referees and their families were honoured by the recognition.

“It’s a great pleasure to be recognised and receive the honour cap, particularly from Paul McLean, who played in some of the matches I refereed,” Mr Cooney said.

“In my time, we weren’t professional referees like the blokes nowadays, so there wasn’t a whole lot of recognition around. To be honoured today is a great feeling.”

“Rugby’s somewhat of a tradition in our household and my son Peter made the trip up from Sydney to accept his grandfather’s cap. Dad’s already been capped as a Wallaby and Peter was very humbled to be invited to receive this cap on dad’s behalf.”

A further 17 Australian Test Referees will be honoured tomorrow in Sydney where ARU Chairman Ron Graham will present the honour caps.