#170 - Joy Neville
Joy Neville - Former Irish Rugby International and current IRFU referee
This episode was brought to you by Cliona’s Foundation - a National charity that provides financial assistance directly to parents of children with life-limiting or chronic complex care needs across Ireland to help with the non-medical expenses related to caring for their child. Find out more at www.clionas.ie
Description
Today we spoke with Joy Neville - former Ireland women's rugby union international and current IRFU referee
Joy is a former Ireland women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. As a player Neville represented Ireland at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups, captaining the first Ireland team to defeat France in that period. After retiring as a player she took up being a referee. She has taken charge of matches in the Women's Six Nations Championship, the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, and the Rugby World Cup, including the 2017 final.
Neville has also achieved a number of firsts as a female referee in the men's game - a Pro14 match when she took charge of a 2017-18 fixture between Ulster and the Southern Kings - wait for the story from that game! This also saw Neville become the first woman to referee a top-level men's rugby union match in the UK. She is professionally contracted with the IRFU, has been a TMO, and is based in Limerick.
Today we spoke about her journey to being a ref from a player, what makes an excellent referee - and what the prep and post-game processes look like. We heard about the challenges of being a referee, balancing between home and work with travel, and her varied officiating roles. We explored how to counter doubt and mistakes - and her fundraising and giving back work. This one is inspiring...about embracing challenges!
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In this episode we discuss 🗣
👐Transitioning from an elite player to an elite referee
🛫The demands on high-performance referees
🍇 Optimising growth and development as a person
👩 Dealing with disrespect in pressure situations
🗣Utilising communication to disarm tense scenarios
👩🏫 Using adversity and challenge to learn and grow
⚽🏉The cultural differences between rugby and football
Key Timestamps
(1:21) - Facing the decision of whether to return to sport or not
(2:45) - Travel demands from elite level refereeing
(5:15) - Workload and preparation referee versus player
(7:45) - Gaining a new perspective from being a mother
(8:30) - Making mistakes as a player
(9:58) - Growth and development as a person
(11:33) - How to get it right as a referee
(12:15) - Learning and responding to a mistake in judgement
(14:36) - Using people management to get ahead
(16:16) - Being seen as robots
(16:49)- Harsh leanings and difficult moments
(18:32) - Dealing with player disrespect
(18:52) - Being laughed at as a female referee
(23:06) - Soccer and a lack of respect for referees
(25:24) - Communication styles and ego
(27:39) - Creating an optimal state of mind to see positives in difficult circumstances
(28:27) - Having self belief and working hard
(29:35) - In adversity, reflect and learn to overcome
(30:25) - Facing minority groups and dropping names and labels
(33:31) - What does high performance mean to you?