Not wanting to go into a Test match without any rugby under his belt, Doleman asked the local referees’ association, of which his father Steve has long been a member, if he could have a run out.
The experience was a far cry from the one on pitch 3B at King’s Park in 2007, when as a 16-year-old recovering from a broken collar bone he agreed to referee instead of playing in a schools’ tournament as planned.
“I was a little bit tentative but gave it a go, and I was rubbish, and dad told me that too,” he said. “So there was plenty to work on after the under-9s game.”
The city has been a second home to Doleman for many years. His parents live in Hong Kong, with his dad director of athletics at the Canadian International School, and it was the venue for several “boys’ weekends” during his time growing up in Shanghai.
“All the top-level rugby I got as a young kid was through Hong Kong,” Doleman said.
“We’d come down for a boys’ weekend at the Sevens and be pitch marshalls, went to all the tournaments, we’d come down for school tournaments and play Hong Kong International Schools, so it’s pretty cool to be back and have an opportunity to referee a premiership game.”
Despite his father’s long history as a referee, Doleman really only “fell into it” when he went to stay with his grandparents in New Zealand before going to university in Otago.
Again, he agreed to step in a game when no one else was available, this time an under-14 affair at Tauranga Boys College where he was interning in the PE Department before heading to university to become a teacher.
“One of the referee coaches saw me referee and said ‘we’d love to have you more involved if you’re willing’,” Doleman said.
“Then when I moved to university they contacted the referees in Otago and they got in contact, and I just became more and more involved and then somehow I was full time.”
Still, it took a while for Doleman to be convinced that he wanted to get involved in that side of the sport.
“One thing that rang in my ear while umming and ahing about whether to referee was growing up seeing dad with all the other referees and the camaraderie they had. That stuck in my head.
“I’m very fortunate to do this full time and I’d do it for free.”
In many ways Hong Kong has played a pivotal role in not only getting Doleman into refereeing, but in his development as well. All referees will say they learn from the “tough moments”, and before his Test debut in Australia’s game against France in Melbourne in July 2o21, many of those moments came on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens circuit.
“It’s a high-pressure environment – you’ve got our referee manager, the international coaches, the tournament itself. It’s high stakes, high pressure,” he said.
“One thing I value the Sevens for is that it moves on very quickly, so you can have these big learning moments, but they’re not fatal blows to a career because there’s not the media backlash, there’s not the social media backlash, it’s moves on so quickly.”
The city, once again, has been part of Doleman’s growth in his profession, a stop on the way to the Six Nations, an opportunity he called “special and humbling”.
“It’s one of those goals as a referee,” he said. “Aside from the World Cup, the Six Nations is the pinnacle. Being involved in a tournament like that, with the history, coming from New Zealand, the fans up north make the Six Nations very special.
“At the end of the day, referees get into refereeing because we’re fans of rugby. The reason I do it is to be involved in those occasions.”
And like players, referees don’t just turn up for a Test match – they prepare too, no matter what some fans might think. His appearance at Football Club was “a little bit to do with getting the brain moving”, and taking charge of Edinburgh’s game against the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship this weekend will be another step in the journey to Twickenham on February 12.
“For me, the one thing is that referees, we put a lot of preparation going into a game, trying to understand the teams and the mentality going into a game,” Doleman said. “We can do all that prep, but it’s actually about getting the actual game fitness, that’s what it is for me, it’s those little triggers where you go, ‘Oh yes, I forgot I need to move here, I need to get out of the way here’.”
If you’re interested in getting involved in refereeing in Hong Kong, you can contact the Hong Kong Rugby Referees Society at [email protected]ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kwLG70a1mq62Xl8Zwtc2tnKumkam2sLrApWSrrZeXxnCt0a2gnKSVZIBzfJZwbm1no57FbrrAraCopqNitbDDjKGmp59doLyvs4yrrKCaqWK%2FprLEq5yeZZ2WsaZ5yaisq6aVrnqstc2gqmaokae4bsDWopqknZ6drq4%3D