“The ones I am going to have to really work hard on early in the game to get what I want.”

Coaches will do what they can but it doesn’t necessarily bother me.

If you get those two aspects right, most rugby matches will work in your favour.

I will know some of the personalities, the players who could be difficult customers in a scrum situation.

But then southern hemisphere teams are more skilful than their northern hemisphere counterparts, which means games can be easier to referee.

I have three tools at my disposal – my whistle, my body language and my talk.

I could give 48 penalties in every match if I wanted to.

You are an international referee for a reason.

The objective of a referee is not to get mentioned. I tell a lot of young referees that not being mentioned is king.

Failure comes when you don’t listen.

The scrum and the tackle are the two really contentious areas of the game.

Coaches do so much research about a referee because they believe refereeing is such a crucial part of the game that the result may hinge on what we say or do.

It is a question of sometimes choosing what is – in your own mind – of material importance and what isn’t, what might be a crucial potential penalty and what might not be.

If things like that are going to ruffle your feathers, don’t bother doing the job.

It’s up to us to make sure we’re listening to improve our chances for success-if not this time, next time.

It is a question of how I marry them up to try to get the players around to my way of thinking.

If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer.

You learn real early to make a film and then duck, and basically that’s how I go about it.

If Lebron was playing in the late 80’s and early 90’s, just an average player

Trust me. I get up 530-6 every morning. I’m in the gym. I run a couple miles. I lift weights, and then I’m at work until 8-9 o’clock at night.

She was one of those Southerners who knew from an early age that the South could never be more for them than a fragrant prison, administered by a collective of loving but treacherous relatives.

I’m an early riser. I work out really hard. I push myself; I get my job done, and at the end of the day, there’s a Guinness waiting for me.

I get up at 5 A.M., and I train hard. I’ve got two young children, so I have to get up early. But I like it.

Time goes by so fast. Nothin’ can outrun it. Death commences too early–almost before you’re half-acquainted with life–you meet the other.

The morale and the camaraderie that we had for one another earlier in the year is starting to come under duress because of all the losses. Some of the guys are feeling the pressure now from the last year when they were not successful.