WHAT IT'S LIKE TO...BE A SEVENS REFEREE SELECTOR

Irish official David Keane lifts the lid on his role behind the scenes

- Josh Graham

DAVID KEANE spent six years on the World Series circuit as a referee from 2006-12. In that time, he took charge of 152 World Series games and had the whistle at the 2009 Sevens World Cup. Now, instead of sweating on whether he's been appointed to a match or tournament, the Irishman is one of the selectors who has to deliver the good or often bad news to today's professional officials.

On top of that he has also acted as a sevens TMO and recently worked as one of the pitchside technical support officials for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games sevens. An event which has been seen as a breakthrough moment for the sport in the public consciousness after the social media explosion caused by Ilona Maher going viral and her US team winning bronze.

So what has Keane, who has now stepped down from his World Rugby role and will focus on his responsibilities as a National Rugby Development Manager with the Irish Rugby Football Union, been doing in his selector role? He tells us: "Throughout the course of the year, as a selector I would review all of the referees' performances and I was a TMO as well. In the Olympics, we split into different roles as there were different ones that needed to be done.

"Like at the Rugby World Cup, I would have been sitting beside a Hawkeye technician who had access to 15 different cameras in the stadium, slow motion, zoom-in, everything that I would have needed.

"So when I'm reviewing the games, I would look at the performance and say, 'That Liaising looked like a knock-on', but we weren't sure, so we go back and review it, and then clip it up to analyse.