This Sunday the society will be holding its yearly Pre-Season Day with our Wessex Federation Partners from Dorset & Wilts. This years event will take place at Frome RFC & we would like to thank Shane Lewis, Frome RFC Chair, for the support in allowing us to use the space. The event has been put together by our Society Training Officer Paul Connolly.
The day will start with the early arrival of those who are looking to set a time for the season on the annual pre-season bronco test. The Bronco is a running-based fitness test designed to assess aerobic capacity, speed endurance, and mental grit. It’s particularly popular in rugby because it reflects the repeated efforts required during a match—especially in open play. The test involves placing four markers at 0m, 20m, 40m, and 60m and running from 0m-60m-0m-40m-0m-20m-0m (total distance of 240m). The goal is to complete five reps as fast as possible.
Once the reps have been completed & the referees have changed they will head upstairs for a welcome by both society chairs, Reg Lewis of Somerset & Marcus Monier-Williams of Dorset & Wilts, as well as Wessex Federation chair Nick Slocombe. The first session of the day will be run by Somerset Life Member & European Rugby Referee Lead Tony Spreadbury who will run a session on the Global Law Trials. To get ahead of the game head to 2025 Global Law Trials to learn about them.
Following a comfort break we will have two sessions, the first will be run by Paul Connolly around the increasing nature of Match Official Abuse & will also give us an update on the full disciplinary process. He will hopefully be joined by distinguished guests from Somerset CB, Dorset & Wilts CB, the RFRU & the RFU disciplinary team. We will also have mentions from both societies disciplinary officers. Following this Dorset & Wilts training officer Ed Bell will run a session on the importance of Secondary Communication before we head to lunch.
Post lunch break there will be a split between referees & match official support. The referees will be split into two and have session by National League referee Adam Wookey & Level 6 experienced referee Rob Owen. Adam will run a session on the importance of the Line Out while Rob’s session will be why the scrum set up is important in community rugby. The match official support team will have a session by Brian Perry on the new advisor form.
The day will be round up with a quick Q&A session before everyone will be on their way home.
