Toronto Wolfpack v Oxford RLFC
Referee: Brandon Robinson
Touch Judges: P Brooke J Pullein
Reserve Referee: C Worsley
M Com: K Leyland
So here we are with the first ever set of officials jetting off to Canada for a regular rugby league club game. Unlike the trip to France last season, the local association are not filling any gaps (which is not a great surprise). Often in these pieces I try to list other games the officials are involved in this weekend. Well, obviously in this case there aren’t any.
Referee: Brandon Robinson (Dewsbury and Batley)
28/02/2016 - Oxford 22 Lock Lane 37 (Challenge Cup) - penalties 10-8 in favour
11/06/2016 - Coventry 48 Oxford 10 - penalties 7-9 against
07/08/2016 - Oxford 46 Hemel 10 (penalties 11-11) - Oxford’s record win
12/03/2017 - Oxford 6 Workington 20 (penalties 10-17 against)
Clearly has impressed the RFL enough with his performances to get selected for this game. I have some text running around in my head for his next Oxford game against a northern club. However, as Toronto is at the same latitude as Toulouse this is not that time. Last week he refereed London Broncos against Swinton.
Touch Judge: Peter Brooke (Manchester)
First game as a touch judge, but I assume he is the Peter Brooke who refereed some of our games a few years ago. He is chair of the Manchester and District Referees Society. Previous Oxford games as referee:
26/05/2013 - London Skolars 40 Oxford 34 (penalties 4-10 against)
23/03/2014 - Oxford 20 Hunslet 46 (penalties 6-8 against)
15/06/2014 - Oxford 28 London Skolars 52 (penalties 7-10 against)
29/06/2014 - Oxford 22 Oldham 38 (penalties 7-5 in favour)
09/08/2014 - Hemel 24 Oxford 31 (penalties 3-4 against)
If you make a late decision to pop along to the game and the touch judge looks nothing like this…
…then I made a mistake.
Touch Judge: Jack Pullein (Huddersfield)
Has done several previous Oxford games, most recently the away game at Swinton in 2015 that had to be played on August Bank Holiday because Swinton went too far in the Challenge Cup. Seems to have his own fan club:
Here’s a more relevant picture, although I hope he looked front before moving any further:
Reserve Referee: Cameron Worsley (Castleford & Featherstone)
Was the scheduled referee for the warm-up victory over Hunslet Club Parkside earlier this year, but in the end he did not take the role. So this is his first known Oxford game. He won the RFL's Young Match Official of the Year last season - when the award was presented in October he was still only 17. He has officiated regularly in the National Conference League and at the last two Champion Schools tournaments. Here he gets his award from someone who always respects officials:
And this is him with a few friends when he was even younger:
Match Commissioner: Keith Leyland (Wigan)
He was the match commissioner for our last game at Coventry. I wrote at the time that he was shortly to lose the distinction of being the only match commissioner for an overseas Oxford game (Toulouse in 2016), but he has obviously lobbied hard to keep anyone else from holding such an honour. Was also match commissioner at the 2013 Challenge Cup final, during the 2013 World Cup, and for the 2015 Grand Final.
