Women's Rugby

Amy Perrett busting down the door as leading referee

Jamie Lyall

When I shared a laugh and a chat with Amy Perrett, nearly six months ago, she, like almost everyone else in women's rugby, had her sights firmly trained on the World Cup in and around Paris during early August. England subsequently claimed the trophy, and the tournament served to enhance the rapid growth the women's game continues to enjoy.

Perrett is no stranger to rapid growth. Aged just 25, the Sydneysider has established herself as one of the top referees in the women's game and a prize commodity for the Australian Rugby Union. Back on that gloomy March afternoon in Edinburgh, where she was preparing to take control of a Six Nations clash between Scotland and France, she spoke softly of making the cut, of winning selection for the World Cup panel. That was her target. It now lies in smithereens. Not only did Perrett excel during the pool stages, winning plaudits and catching the eye of her bosses, but she beat off competition from officials who bested her in age, eminence and experience to win the right to take charge of the final itself, between England and Canada.

"It's been a pretty crazy time," she tells ESPN. "I never expected any of this, especially at such a young age and still being the new kid on the block. The World Cup final was only my seventh Test match. I went to the World Cup just happy to be there, get the games that were given to me, and not think too far ahead. I didn't have any pressure or expectation on me so I could just go out and do my own thing, whereas many of the other girls had a lot more pressure on them because they are the seasoned campaigners. I got to fly under the radar."

It wasn't all plain sailing. Whatever hopes Perrett harboured of easing herself into the tournament evaporated just 12 minutes into her first match between England and Samoa, in which the islanders fullback, Soteria Pulumu, scooped up England scrum-half Natasha Hunt, tipped her head-over-heels and tossed her to the turf in a dreadful tackle that swiftly became an internet hit.

"She had to go," Perrett says. "You can imagine how I was feeling at that moment. My heart was pumping; I had this massive call to make. I hadn't seen anything like that in women's rugby before, so it was a big shock. In my game prep, I was expecting some big hits from the Samoan girls but nothing quite like that. It kind of happened in slow-motion for me, and I was thinking, 'is she going to put her down right, is she going to put her down right?' She didn't … it was such an easy call to make."

There followed pool matches involving France, South Africa and the eventual finalists, and a semi-final in which England battered an impressive but flagging Ireland outfit. As the big game approached and the pressure mounted, nerves were to be expected. But Perrett, growing up as a young, female official in a landscape dominated by men, has long-since learned to shield herself from the spotlight.

"For my second game I had France-South Africa, and there were 1.7 million people watching it on television," she says. "It didn't really cross my mind. Especially for the final, about a week beforehand I had England-Canada in the pool stages, and I knew how they were going to play. I didn't want the occasion to get to me; if it did, and I'd felt the pressure, I would probably not have done a very good job and you might be writing other things about me."

The World Cup-winning England team meet Prime Minister David Cameron © Getty Images Enlarge

Sell-out crowds and seven-figure television audiences became a feature of the competition. In the UK, the victorious Englishwomen were plastered across the front pages of the national press then rewarded with full-time, professional contracts by the RFU.

That's a luxury Perrett does not yet enjoy, fitting her rugby in around her day job as a disability care worker. Thanks to an understanding boss, more recently, it's been the other way round, with refereeing dictating her nursing shifts and hindering planning for her wedding in early October.

With the arrival of the National Rugby Championship in Australia comes a clearer route to the top for female as well as male officials. Can Perrett foresee a time when she can take up the whistle and travel the world without fears for her financial security?

"The ARU is definitely being very positive with female match officials and trying to develop a pathway for us," she tells ESPN. "That's probably the whole idea behind the NRC: to get that pathway for playing, coaching and refereeing to the top level.

"The publicity from the World Cup is great for the players, a great way to get promotions and sponsorship, and to be paid as pro-athletes like the men. I think we'll gradually, slowly get to that stage where there's professionalism for everyone.

"I always look at the positives. I get to travel round the world doing something I like. It's not full-time, so I try to take as many opportunities as I can, though I'd love to give up my job and do this full-time. But the reality is you need sponsors, you need money to pay us, and at the moment in Australian rugby, it's not quite there."

Behind the scenes at #WRWC14. Toss before the final pic.twitter.com/5EKGnYmxPe — Amy Perrett (@Amy_Perrett89) August 20, 2014

Perrett has time on her side. Her attitude, too, will help her. Relentlessly positive, the stark contrast between the quiet yet bubbly young woman at the end of the phone-line and the steely authoritarian that takes to the field is striking. And it's not just I who notices.

"It's my game-face," Perrett laughs. "I learned a long time ago that I need to be a bit different on the field, a bit sterner. It's kind of like you're acting; you're a different person. You've got to do that, because if I was like this on the field, very chatty and giggly, I might not get the respect of the players, especially in the men's game. I might not be taken seriously.

"Some of my friends back home don't actually watch rugby, but they saw I was doing the World Cup and they were all emailing me saying, 'that's not really you out there, that's a completely different person'. "But that's how I have to behave so that I demand the attention of all those players out there on the big stage."

With potentially another two decades of elite refereeing ahead of her, Perrett has much still to achieve. A regular on the Sevens circuit, she has taken charge of her first men's XVs game in the Shute Shield, and four days after landing back on home turf post-World Cup, she was running touch in the first round of the NRC.

"The 2016 Olympics in Rio is my main focus now. I'll still be doing some XVs but that's my key goal, though there are going to be opportunities back home in the NRC. If they believe that I could handle refereeing an NRC game, then it's definitely a possibility. But I think being in its first year, with everyone trying to sort out what the game's going to be like, it's unlikely this season. But you never know."

Indeed we do not. And when it comes to Amy Perrett, it will take a brave man - or woman - to bet against her exceeding all expectations.

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