George Clancy Interview | Calling Time On A Globetrotting Refereeing Career

George Clancy begins our chat by describing his weekend. Two days of indulging the plethora of Irish sport which graced our television screens.

This is a normal weekend for most of us, but for Clancy, it is a rare occasion and one to be savoured as his career as a professional referee begins to wind down.

As the Limerick man will soon describe, life as a referee in the pro game means that you don’t have the luxury of free time on a Saturday or a Sunday. Most of that consists of long waits in airports, travel and of course, the not so small matter of officiating high-pressure rugby matches.

The reality of the world we live in right now means there was no deserved send-off for Clancy as he officiated his final professional game which was the clash between Ospreys and the Glasgow Warriors at an empty Liberty Stadium last month.

“I did take those extra 10 seconds before I walked down the tunnel at the Liberty Stadium just to take it all in a small bit, this being my last professional game as a referee,” Clancy tells Munster Rugby from his Co. Limerick home.

George Clancy during a clash between Edinburgh and the Cardiff Blues last season

Many retired players will tell you that what they miss the most is those couple of minutes celebrating a victory in the sanctuary of the changing room at the end of a big game. It’s no different for referees and it’s a shame Clancy couldn’t celebrate his final match with his refereeing colleagues in south Wales.

“Of course, the best parts of it would be after a big European game, maybe down in the south of France with a French team and an English team or whatever the case might be. It’s a tough game but it has gone really well, you’re wrecked tired mentally after the game, physically tired after the game. Someone might just grab a beer or two in the dressing room and you’d be sitting down there still in your kit and you’d just be chatting to the lads about the game and having a few laughs about it, before anyone can come at you, before anyone can start pointing to the mistakes that you would inevitably make during the course of the game. It’s just nice to have those 30 or 35 minutes straight after the match where it’s just you and the lads. Just reflecting on the game and a job well done, hopefully.”  

125 Guinness PRO14 fixtures, 75 Heineken Champions Cup fixtures, 46 internationals, Six Nations championships, Rugby Championships, two Rugby World Cups – Clancy has seen and experienced it all.

George Clancy talks to Chris Robshaw during the 2012 Six Nations

It’s these experiences and memories which the 43-year-old will look back on fondly once he finally steps away from the pro game. Although Clancy refereed his last professional game last month, he will be the fourth official for Ireland’s clash with Wales in the Autumn Nations Cup on Friday night with a few more assistant refereeing gigs lined up in November as he steps away from the pro game altogether.

“It’s just been unbelievable. What rugby has given me over the course of the past 20 years as regards travelling the world and the people that I have met, the experiences that I’ve had along the way. Just to be involved at the highest level of the game has been incredible. I’ve had so many memories, it’s unbelievable. I keep a daily diary for an everyday week. I haven’t even got a chance to go back through it, but you can imagine over the course of over 500 professional games between refereeing and assistant refereeing and even TMO the odd time, that there’s such a wealth of incredible memories down through the years that I have been very, very lucky.”

That would be the making of a good book.

“I’d say a few fellas would be worried all right,” he laughs.

A Bruff Start

Community Games was where Clancy got his first taste of the oval ball before he went through the underage grades at Bruff RFC. Clancy also played during his teenage years at the famed Limerick rugby nursery of St. Munchin’s College in Corbally.

Bruff are now a senior club but during the 90s they were trying to make that breakthrough to senior status and one of Clancy’s fondest memories as a player was winning the Munster Junior Challenge Cup in 1998.

“It was great to be on that with a lot of fellas that I played with at underage all the way up along. Even my brother-in-law was on that team. It was really nice.” 

Trying to juggle his love of rugby and hurling with the addition of picking up the “odd niggle” saw Clancy drift away from the oval ball somewhat until his father, Seoirse, who was a referee himself in the 80s, encouraged his son to take up a role with the whistle. 

George Clancy during the Magners League semi-final in 2011

“My father had been a referee back in the 80s and from sitting down to watch matches, we would always be going through the laws of the game and how the referee was getting on. Some might say badgered, I might say he encouraged me into giving the refereeing a go and once I went down that road and decided to commit to something, I got stuck into it 100% and yeah, pretty soon I was refereeing at a level I had never played at.”

Clancy cut his teeth in the Munster Junior League and a clash between local Tipperary rivals Clanwilliam and Kilfeacle & District is one which particularly stands out. 

“I certainly remember refereeing a Junior Cup game between Clanwilliam and Kilfeacle out in ‘The Hill’. That was certainly an eye-opening experience, you’d want to have eyes in the back of your head there! Those games, talk about getting a fella ready for the national panel. I always felt that guys who refereed in the Munster Junior Leagues are really put through the testing ground and were always well prepared when they managed to get up to the national panel in terms of managing players and the various scenarios that you would be presented with.”

Clancy credits the mentoring he received from notable figures within the Munster Association of Referees as crucial in his development during the early years of his refereeing career.

“We had really good guys in the Munster Association of Referees with regards to coaching and mentoring you along. People like Johnny Cole, Noel Moore, ‘Wiry’ Sexton – fellas like that who put in a huge amount of time into us. I know I’m leaving fellas out there but down in Cork, guys like Stan Fuller and people like that, Ronnie McDowell as well who would always have your back and bring you on as best you could. I’m forever grateful to those lads really.”

The Highest Level

When we ask Clancy what were his standout matches that he had the pleasure of refereeing, it will come as no surprise that the Limerick man details numerous examples. 

The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will always be special as Clancy had the privilege of officiating the opening game of that tournament – the All Blacks and Tonga on the hallowed turf of Eden Park.

George Clancy during the 2011 Rugby World Cup opener between New Zealand and Tonga

“I was lucky enough there because my Dad and my wife (Evelyn) came down to the game in Auckland. We were staying in an apartment in the centre of Auckland and I looked out the window from the 14th floor of it and you can see almost a quarter of a million people down on the quayside of downtown Auckland,” Clancy says as he recalls that September day.

“People down there were wearing all different colours. The match was between New Zealand and Tonga, but you saw people there wearing Ireland jerseys, Australian jersey, Argentina jerseys. It hit home to me how important this game was from a world rugby perspective. It’s a little bit beyond what goes on between the lines on the pitch.” 

Clancy continues: “Thankfully, the game went really well. I was delighted with it. Afterwards, I remember we were down in the changing room and the next minute there was a knock on the door. And who arrived in only the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key. I’m a bit of a political buff myself. It was just incredible. It sort of brought home how much it meant to the country of New Zealand.”

Clashes between France and England in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship fixtures between the All Blacks and the Springboks will be memories that will always stay with Clancy. 

“I got to referee New Zealand and South Africa twice in the Rugby Championship, really tough games. Things are happening at 100 miles per hour. They’re amazing games. You’re dealing with the best players in the world. You’ve got your Bryan Habanas, your Richie McCaws, Dan Carters, fellas like that.

“I’m a rugby supporter as well so sometimes you’ve got to pinch yourself that you’re operating at the level of these guys.”

One occasion which Clancy will never forget took place a lot closer to home. Munster against the All Blacks in 2008 for the opening of the redeveloped Thomond Park. 

New Zealand Munster players Rua Tipoki, Doug Howlett, and Lifeimi Mafi perform a haka to the All Blacks at Thomond Park in 2008

“One of the most incredible occasions was when Munster played the All Blacks for the opening of Thomond Park. I’ll just never forget that. I was the fourth official for the game. We got to be at pitch level when all of this was happening with the Munster haka, the New Zealand haka, the minute silence for Shane Geoghegan, god rest him, the match ball being dropped down by helicopter, the crowd.

“That was just off the charts for me. I’ll never forget it. I was doing fourth official, like, but I remember walking back to the dugout, I got pins and needles in my hands, even. It was an experience I never had before or since at a rugby ground. People were saying that it was some occasion. You’d think the match would never live up to that after that but my god, it certainly did.”

The Future

As Clancy steps away from the professional refereeing bubble, he reflects on the excellent progress that has been made at a provincial and national level in developing the next generation of elite referees in this country. 

“We’re in a really good place now and I think that has been reflected in the strides that have been made by the likes of Andy Brace and Frank Murphy. Obviously, Joy Neville is World Referee of the Year and she’ll go on to fantastic things as well. Sean Gallagher as well is making great strides. I think we’re in a really good place. Even just the tier below that we have the likes of Chris Busby making his first strides into the professional game, that seems to be going really well. I think we’re very well set.”

Assistant referee Joy Neville and referee George Clancy during a European Challenge Cup clash between Clermont Auvergne and Northampton Saints in 2019

Although Clancy will no longer be involved in the professional side of the game, he is eager to give back to something which has provided him with so much. Depending on the time commitments required for his new job in the Civil Service, the Limerick man would like to return to refereeing in the Munster Junior League and perhaps the All Ireland League.

“What people maybe don’t realise about refereeing is that there’s a lot of travelling involved. In the professional game, sure, Munster travel as well but half of Munster games are at home whereas none of our games as a referee are at home so we’re travelling every weekend and a lot of the time, it’s outside of Ireland.

“It’s not just there and back. We don’t have access to a charter plane for example. If the match is on a Saturday, we’re gone Friday and back Sunday. You can imagine doing that 30 times over the course of a year and the stresses it can put on life at home. Luckily enough, I’ve had a very understanding wife, she’s looked after me really well and kept me between the ditches for those number of years and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I’ve achieved without her support as well.”

One thing is for sure, the Limerick native is looking forward to having a more traditional schedule, including those weekends enjoying sport from a different perspective.

“I was chatting to my wife there at the weekend and she was saying that she’s looking forward to seeing a game where it’s not stopped, started, rewound back a 100 times before we get to the end of the first half. I’m looking forward to that myself!”