Rebecca Whiteley, from Keighley, is a prominent female referee responsible for developing young officials across Yorkshire and the North West.
She was only 12 when she announced her decision to take a rugby refereeing course and prove she could stand her ground on the pitch.
Alongside our partners at ACME Whistles, we were able to catch up with Rebecca and find out about her rugby career so far and why inspiring young people to take up the whistle is so important to her.
“It’s been 19 years since I did my refereeing course,” she said.
“I was only 12 at the time. I used to watch my brother playing and had recently started playing myself.
“Kids will parrot whatever adults say and I’d copied something someone said, and my parents told me that if I thought I could do a better job then I should go ahead.
“So, I went with a couple of others to Shaw Cross one weekend to take the refereeing course run by Rob Hicks and Jamie Leahy.”
Initially, Rebecca wanted to complete the referee course to learn more about rugby and improve as a new player, but when she was asked to referee an U-12s game it ignited a passion within her that has burned ever since.
“Without a doubt, it’s the people I’ve met that makes me love refereeing so much,” she continued.
“It sounds cliché when people talk about the ‘rugby league family’, but there’s one within the refereeing community that’s even more tight knit because we know a lot of the stuff we must face on the pitch, like the abuse, and we’re just dead supportive of each other.
“I’ve got best friends who’s kids call me Aunty Rebecca, some out of refereeing and my other half is also a referee who I met at a game.
“It’s insane how much it takes over and you get drawn into it.”
Rebecca has now come full circle and is developing other young match officials. This isn’t a role she takes lightly, having relied so heavily on the support she received as a youngster to help her progress, develop and come through the game.
“I’m now the one that’s providing the support for the kids,” she said.
“Watching them flourish and progress is good to see and it’s nice to be involved – to see the other side of the coin.”
While things have changed a lot since Rebecca started reffing, both in terms of the rules and how things are done, she appreciates that referees are better supported these days and is glad to be part of that change for young people wanting to take up the whistle.
“We take better care of referees now,” she reflects.
“We’re a lot more protective over them. Back when I was a kid, abuse was part and parcel of the game, and we just got on with it, whereas now we take the approach of ‘why should we have to put up with it?’
“We help the young ones coming through to enjoy what they’re doing which I think is probably the biggest turning point and the bit I’ve really focused on over the last few years. We retain more referees when we take care of them and they enjoy what they do.
“If you can work with the clubs and build a relationship, it’s going to protect your referees in the long term which I think we’re already seeing the benefit of.”
Rebecca referees and appoints young officials in Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford and Keighley where every society looks after their own area, and she has spent the last few years building good relationships with these clubs.
She encourages the young people she works with to attend pre-season training sessions at the local junior clubs to learn the new rules that are coming in, and familiarise themselves with their local clubs.
It’s clear how passionate she is about what she does as she goes on to say, “We have got to a point now where other people are starting to replicate what we are doing and it’s working – it’s turned into something really positive.
“We’re keeping officials in the game now which is always the way forward and it makes my life, doing the appointments, way easier.”
A quality assurance manager for a bank, Rebecca credits refereeing for helping improve her communication and problem-solving abilities as well as her ability to deal with difficult people.
“The hardest part of refereeing is biting your tongue when people are giving you grief,” she adds.
“If I’m watching the young referees and I see anything negative then I’ll challenge it, but when you’re in the middle of the pitch, officiating, you have to pick your battles.
“But then you have the rewarding bits of refereeing where you are involved in games that are examples of brilliant rugby - really fun and everyone is enjoying it and getting on.
“I particularly love refereeing kid’s games where you can see them falling in love with rugby and you know they are going to stick with it for life.
“Without referees there just isn’t a game and it’s nice for me to be able to facilitate more officials coming into the sport.”
Rebecca is adamant that referees love the game more than anybody else because they wouldn’t put up with half the things they do otherwise.
“There are more people who are combining playing rugby with refereeing it,” she muses.
“When I was a teenager people either refereed or they played and there wasn’t the option to do both.
“In Yorkshire, because they split the playing days with the junior rugby, it’s possible to do both. I’ve got 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds that play on a Sunday but can then referee the U-12 and U-13’s games on a Saturday.
“That’s part of the reason why we have so many junior officials coming through. We’ve got 36 active officials in Huddersfield, half of which are U-18.”
Over the years Rebecca has noticed a rise in girls who are starting to referee which she thinks is a big leap forward in rugby league.
“Myself, Marcus Griffiths and Mike Smaill have just set up the Women and Girls’ Match Official Programme that will start in 2023,” she notes.
“We’ve already run some courses that are girls’ only courses and we’ve created an environment where they can speak up and gain in confidence.
“The biggest challenge we’ve currently got is the rapid expansion of the women and girls’ game. Women and girls’ rugby league is actually the fastest growing sport in the UK at the minute.
“When I initially took over appointing in Huddersfield in 2018, we had 4 girl’s teams and now we have 26.
“Girls now realise they can do it and I think they make better referees - they’re more level-headed, think things through carefully and are more self-reflective and keener to improve.”
Rebecca has Matt Foster, a former Keighley Cougars player, to thank for inspiring her to take such an active role in rugby league.
“Keighley Cougars was my local team growing up and I did my work experience with Matt when I was 16, going into schools in the district and delivering coaching sessions to young students.
“I ended up doing a degree in Sport Development off the back of that. Matt doesn’t realise it, but he’s had the most influence on my involvement in rugby league, including being a referee, and how I’ve approached rugby.
“He set up the girls’ team that I joined and got me involved in coaching and encouraging more girls into the sport. He’s become a family friend and I’ve kept in touch with him.”
She is now so ingrained in rugby league that she will never leave, and she loves the community spirit and support she receives from her peers.
“It’s all about meeting new people,” she concludes.
“This year I’m the team liaison officer for Jamaica at the World Cup. I worked with Jamaica in 2014 for the U-19 Commonwealth in Glasgow and they’ve requested me this year because we got on so well.
“Setting up this women’s and girls’ programme means that hopefully we’re going to start seeing more women and girls going to the World Cup in a few years’ time and refereeing. Every other sport has female referees so why can’t we?”
