Alan Lewis Quotes

If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer.

Coaches do so much research about a referee because they believe refereeing is such a crucial part of the game that the result may hinge on what we say or do. They probably know more about me than I know myself!

Coaches will do what they can but it doesn’t necessarily bother me. You are an international referee for a reason. If things like that are going to ruffle your feathers, don’t bother doing the job.

I do my own analysis on the teams I am refereeing. I will know some of the personalities, the players who could be difficult customers in a scrum situation, the ones I am going to have to really work hard on early in the game to get what I want.

My job is to persuade people to toe the line and play within the laws of the game.

I have three tools at my disposal – my whistle, my body language and my talk. It is a question of how I marry them up to try to get the players around to my way of thinking.