An interview with Commonwealth Games Sevens referee Richard Haughton Richard Haughton, 37, is one of the match officials on duty this weekend for the Commonwealth Games Sevens at Robina Stadium on the Gold Coast. Haughton won a silver medal at the 2006 Games with England in Melbourne and the 14-strong team contains other referees with high-level playing experience in Australia’s Damon Murphy, a bronze medalist in 2006, and Rebecca Mahoney, a double Women’s World Cup winner with New Zealand. A former winger for Saracens, Wasps and Perpignan, Haughton scored more than 100 tries for England on the Sevens World Series before making his refereeing debut in the competition last season. Rugby World interviewed him about his rugby journey for an article that appeared in our February 2017 edition… My parents were living in Zambia when I was born. My mum, Pat, taught midwifery and my dad, Roy, is a chartered accountant and at that time was financial controller for the Zambia government. He later did an MBA in Canada but by my fifth birthday we were back in England. We were a sporty family. Dad played all the sports he could well into his 50s and Mum, who’s Jamaican, did sprinting and cricket. My sister, Alison, was good at athletics. I wanted to be like Jerry Guscott. I grew up in Surrey and played rugby at Sutton & Epsom RFC, with the U9s. For most of my junior rugby my position varied depending on my skill level that day. I enjoyed rugby in the winter and athletics in the summer. I worked a lot with my sister’s athletics group on sprinting technique. I studied at the British School of Osteopathy in London. I passed year one but then they changed the course, so I stopped to pursue a rugby career. I was in the Saracens Academy from 16 and made my Premiership debut in 2000 at Kingsholm. My first day at Sarries was also Tim Horan and Thomas Castaignede’s first day. Alan Zondagh gave me my contract but I also played under Francois Pienaar, Buck Shelford, Alan Gaffney, Eddie Jones and Brendan Venter. It was an unsettled time with coaches changing almost year on year. Sarries was like a second home for me. When I left in 2010, we had an end-of-season dinner and it was very emotional. It was quite hard getting through the speech. I have so many good memories from that time. I left because I wanted to play more. Alex Goode had become first choice at full-back and you can see what he’s done for Sarries and England. I joined Wasps at an interesting time – they were in financial turmoil and in my second year we only just avoided relegation. I played one game for Jersey. I’d agreed a contract at Perpignan but the board vetoed it. So I joined Jersey on the understanding that if anything came up I could leave. I trained with them for six weeks and played a friendly against Leicester. … Continue reading An interview with Commonwealth Games Sevens referee Richard Haughton