Ben Connor is becoming used to refereeing in the Welsh capital. Last month he was the man in the middle for the Judgement Day X clash between the Ospreys and Cardiff in their BKT United Rugby Championship derby match at Principality Stadium.
This weekend he returns to the Arms Park for the final Super Rygbi Cymru semi-final at the Arms Park. Last weekend he took charge of the quarter final between Cardiff and Bridgend and on Sunday he will blowing the whistle when Cardiff meet Newport to determine who reaches the SRC final.
All in all, it has been an exceptional season for the up-and-coming Welsh official, who in October became the youngest referee to take charge of a URC match at the age of 21. He has also been the man in the middle for the finals of two prestigious World Series Sevens events in Cape Town and Hong Kong.
Having decided to give up playing to concentrate on refereeing he is beginning to make the kind of impact that could soon see him vying with the likes of Craig Evans, Ben Whitehouse and Adam Jones in following Nigel Owens onto the Six Nations panel and beyond.
“I played up until I was 16 for Abertillery BG and a bit for Dragons U16. I was an outside half, the same as my dad,” said Ben, referring to his father, Shaun, who played vor both the Ospreys and Dragons before heading into coaching.
“Rugby has been in my life since I was born, and I’ve always wanted to be involved in the game. “When I was 16, I realised I wasn’t particularly the biggest person.
“There were boys the same age as me who were a foot taller and who weighed a lot more. So, I just thought there has got to be another way to be involved.
“I had already done a bit of refereeing. I did my Level One course when I was 14 and I combined playing with reffing junior games in the last two years I was playing.
“As soon as I turned 16, it had to make a choice – play or referee. I’d started to enjoy refereeing more than playing and soon realised there were probably more opportunities for me in going down that road.
“I stopped playing and started refereeing every Saturday – second team and youth team games. I did my first senior first team game when I was 18 and started by refereeing Division 5 and 6 games.”
Ben was included in a development group run by Sean Brickell, from the WRU referees’ department, and then assigned a coach – Ian Davies, who is now the Union’s elite match official manager.
“Ian has guided me from Division 5 all the way up to where I am now,” explained Ben, who has since enjoyed a a number of landmarks in the past couple of years.
In 2023, having only just turned 20, he became the first overseas referee since 1964 to take charge of the feature match at the famous Craven Week in George, South Africa. Then last year came his first URC league fixture between Zebre and Lions at Stadio Sergio Llanfranchi.
That meant that at just 21 he had become the youngest referee in a URC match, surpassing the record held since 2013 by Ireland’s Sean Gallager, who was 23 at the time.
“I was on my way home from a Sevens tournament in Colorado when Ian rang me. He asked me how it had gone and then said ‘Oh, one more thing, you’ve got a URC game in October’,” recalled Ben.
“I was obviously a bit shocked because I had no inkling this was going to come. I didn’t expect it for at least another couple of years.
“But, as soon as I knew I’d got it, it was just a case of looking forward to it. It was another opportunity to put my name out there and show what I can do.”
More memorable moments followed as he refereed the HSBC World Sevens Series final between South Africa and France in Cape Town in December and then the showpiece final at the Hong Kong Sevens in March, this time involving Olympic champions France and Argentina.
“I don’t really suffer from nerves and I feel like I referee better when there’s a bit of pressure on me,” he added.
“If you are going out to referee the final of the Hong Kong Sevens in front of 40,000 people, you just feel excited and look forward to it. The Sevens equips you for refereeing at big stadiums in front of lots of people, as well as having to make decisions under pressure.”
Then came his big break on home soil, controlling the Welsh derby between the play-off chasing Ospreys and Cardiff at Principality Stadium.
“I had refereed there once before in a Dewar Shield U16 final between Cardiff and Rhondda Schools in 2022. There were probably only a couple of hundred people there for that, so it was quite a different experience with Judgement Day.
“I was aware going into the game what was on it, with both teams still able to qualify for the top eight. But ultimately, I just had to focus on going out there and doing my job.
“As soon as you start thinking about the occasion, you can lose your focus. It’s good to acknowledge there is a lot on the game, but when you go out there you just forget about it and do what you normally do.
“I used to feel I had to put my stamp on a game, but players are smart. As soon as they spot a bit of weakness, they know they can attack that and maybe take advantage of it.
“Now I feel I like to let the game breathe a bit maybe. It’s a case of the less whistle the better because people don’t want to hear, they want to see the players.
“I could pick out an offence at every breakdown if I wanted to referee that way. If you do that, you probably end up with 50 penalties and people will have turned off after 20 minutes.
“I think what the best referees do is realise in the first 10-15 minutes what the game needs. Does it need a lot of whistle, and a lot of structure or are you able to sit back and allow the players to dictate how the game is going to unfold?”
“The point I’m at now, I enjoy it too much to worry about the other stuff that comes with it.”