Josh Syms (left) in his role as part of the Hawke's Bay Magpies' coaching and management team. This year he's also been helping out in a refereeing crisis. Photo / File
Josh Syms (left) in his role as part of the Hawke's Bay Magpies' coaching and management team. This year he's also been helping out in a refereeing crisis. Photo / File
Hawke's Bay Magpies assistant coach Josh Syms has joined the refereeing revolution by stepping up to help plug the gaps in the region's rugby refereeing roster by taking up the whistle for two matches this season.
And while the club season is starting to draw to a close and theMagpies' season about to heat up, with the first Ranfurly Shield defence just a week away, Syms isn't ruling out the possibility to get the whistle out yet again before the season ends.
A former school teacher who took up coaching after his playing career ended with a serious injury at the age of 26, Syms had some experience refereeing when needed in lower age groups, and associate refereeing courses are part of the growth and contractual obligations of the modern Magpies player.
Thus he had no hesitation in stepping up to help out amid the referee-shortage crisis in Hawke's Bay when the SOS went up earlier this season.
He refereed a Colts match between Central and Taradale in Waipukurau on May 22, and on Saturday the Senior Division 2 match between Waipawa Country United and Eskview in Waipawa, where he lives.
Syms, who's had about 33 years in rugby since first lacing up the boots at the age of about 6, said he'd answered the call last week as the match was close by in Central Hawke's Bay, and if straits were as dire again, he'd do it again.
The situation has been such that clubs have been told to make members available for associate referee courses, and with close to 50 games on Saturdays at the peak of the season, in Premier, Senior, Colts, Women's and secondary schools grades, clubs have at times had to provide their own referees, including the Senior 3 Division (an unofficial "President's" grade).
Even Hawke's Bay Union chief executive Jay Campbell was pressed into action, and there have been times when some referees have controlled at least two games in a day.
The weekly pressure for Hawke's Bay Rugby referees manager Keith Groube and appointments officer Mark Johnson will ease from July 3, when Premier to Colts rugby will be over apart from semifinals and finals over the following fortnight.
Groube says the job of increasing numbers remains, in the hope that arms no longer have to be twisted to be able to provide referees for all the games being played.
Syms sees it as some sort of obligation, saying the sport has "given, given, given" to players who, when the time comes, need to step up and "give something back."
