Amber Stamp

Watch Amber Stamp - Welsh Rugby Union on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 The biggest thing for female referees for me is perception. It's about showcasing that female

00:05 refs do have a part to play in the male game. I want to be the best official that I can be

00:10 and where I go with that I'm excited to see.

00:13 The support from the WRU and my family, especially from my mum, auntie and my nan,

00:19 they're massive rocks for me. I started refereeing when I was 17,

00:25 had a few shoulder injuries when I played so a few operations and gave that up.

00:30 A few seasons out and then my nan signed me up for the female only referee to ref course

00:37 down at the Vale. So I did that and my first game was under 15 girls down at Cardiff Harlequins

00:44 and I've not really looked back since then. Testing myself mentally and physically for that 80,

00:50 just gives me that buzz that I can't get anywhere else apart from playing really.

00:54 I like to get to the ground nice and early and give myself a little bit of breathing room,

00:58 introduce myself to both sets of coaches to see what I can best speak to the teams

01:03 before kick-off around their warm-ups. I'll go into the changing rooms, get all my stuff ready,

01:10 go out and speak to both sets of teams, check their studs and then do the toss with both captains.

01:16 I'll go back in, get myself ready to warm up, go out, warm up, come back in,

01:20 do a bit of my last mental prep ready for the game and then we'll kick off.

01:24 For me now, I am still nervous before games. It's just the nature of it. I'm just anxious,

01:30 excited, ready to go, a little bit nervous as well. But I think for me, looking back to my

01:35 first game under 15 girls, I was like proper, proper anxious, bit nervous. You don't really

01:41 know what to expect. So I think that season, kind of the biggest thing for me was like growing into

01:45 that, getting that experience in my belt, just getting those routines like we just spoke about,

01:50 what to do before the match, during the match and then after the match as well. So I think that's

01:54 the whole experience and if you can really nail that before kick-off, it does ease you into that

01:59 game so much easier. The reaction across Wales has always been like really positive. I've been to

02:09 quite a few clubs now and really had positive experiences. Of course, some Saturdays are tougher

02:15 than others, there's Sundays as well. But I think you take those and we park it and we move on from

02:21 them. Sean Brickle, the development referee officer for WIU, has helped me massively in my

02:30 refereeing journey. He was kind of in charge of that ready to ref group when I first started and

02:37 he's been massive for me in terms of reviewing my games and just being there for me over the past

02:44 three or four seasons. I think for me probably the biggest thing is just being like on the end

02:49 of the phone and I can say that about all of the coaches that I work with in WIU. They're always

02:56 there on that Saturday afternoon whether I've had a good or a bad game and I think for me,

02:59 when you're out there on a Saturday it can feel quite lonely but knowing that you've got that

03:04 support network with people like Sean as well as my family, it's just been massively beneficial for me.

03:09 If you'd have probably told me in the car park at Cardiff Quins when I was 17 that I'd be doing

03:19 this now I probably wouldn't have believed you. But again, I think very different expectations

03:25 back then of what I wanted to achieve, I'm very different now.

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