'A brilliant opportunity for me': JP Doyle is back in rugby

Ex-RFU referee JP Doyle has been named as Scottish rugby’s high-performance referee coach in a newly created role put in place by performance director Jim Mallinder as part of the recent departmental restructure. The popular Dubliner was controversially made redundant by the RFU in August 2020 due to budgetary cuts and after spending the 2021 season working in the American MLR, he had since taken up a school teaching post in Scotland. 

This relocation resulted in the SRU taking an interest in the former Test level referee and a new position has now been set up to get Doyle back in the game. An SRU statement read: “JP Doyle began his career in 2001 and officiated regularly in the English Premiership. In May 2014, he refereed the Premiership Final before being appointed as an official at the 2015 World Cup and taking charge of matches in the Six Nations.

“On leaving the RFU in 2020, Doyle worked as a refereeing coach in the United States in Major League Rugby and as a part-time teacher at Craigclowan Preparatory School in Perthshire. In the newly created role within Scottish rugby, Doyle will oversee Scotland’s four full-time referees - Mike Adamson, Ben Blain, Hollie Davidson and Sam Grove-White. 

“As well as working closely with the wider refereeing team and upskilling referee coaches throughout Scotland, Doyle will also develop Scottish rugby’s referee talent ID programme to ensure Scotland’s refereeing representation continues at the highest level.”

Doyle said: “Throughout my career, I have always had opportunities to be involved in coaching and being from an educational teaching background for the last 15 years, this role mirrored perfectly where I wanted my career to go.

“The refereeing department within Scottish rugby is already successful so this is a brilliant opportunity for me to develop that and put further structures in place to what is already working well. My main focus from the refereeing side will be to help develop the technical side but also the human element. To achieve long term success it is critical that our referees maintain positive relations across the game in order to achieve success.

“Like every team in sport, you have to build and develop so another key focus of my role will be around talent ID. I’ll be out looking at who is coming through the refereeing pathways but also engaging with players and coaches within clubs as that will be where we’ll find a lot of our talent going forward.”

Performance director Mallinder added: “Having a man of JP Doyle’s experience coaching our high-performance refereeing team will be of great benefit to match officials across Scotland. All four of our referees have been rewarded recently with appointments in high-profile matches, particularly Mike Adamson who has been involved in this year’s Six Nations.

“JP’s experience will be invaluable in helping their development but also ensuring that there is a strong pipeline of referees coming through the ranks. The technical knowledge he will provide will be invaluable in driving forward Scottish refereeing across the board.”