Scotland to stage IRL funded technical education course

• In 2025 IRL launched the most expansive investment into grassroots game development in its history
• The technical education project objective is to ensure that every IRL member nation is able to produce its own coaches and match officials, through accredited local educators
• The IRL's system focuses heavily on continuing technical development between courses, to ensure that acquired knowledge turns into maturing understanding of the game, higher technical standards and an authentically developed sport
• The project is underpinned by state of the art e-learning management systems and coaching resources

Scotland will be the first recipient of an IRL funded technical education visit in 2026, with IRL Tutor Rebecca Whiteley, a long-standing educator in England, to deliver a Match Official Level 1 course in Edinburgh.

Whiteley recently took charge of the 2025 Wheelchair Ashes series in Australia and supported the development of locally based officials as part of the events.

Candidates will undertake the Level 1 course in person before being added to the IRL Technical Education Portal to complete the post-course work, known as CATO, over the course of the 2026 season under the supervision of Whiteley and other IRL Educators to become accredited.

The course takes place at the Peffermill Playing Fields at Edinburgh University, starting 8.30am and finishing at 4.00pm and is free to attend.

The visit takes place one week before the expanded six-team Scotland Rugby League Premiership kicks off on Saturday 2nd May.

The competition continues to grow with the addition of Tayside Silverbacks and Borders Barbarians and the expanded competition, along with addressing technical education requirements, are part of Scotland Rugby League’s efforts to return to being a full member of IRL.

“We’re very much looking forward to the Match Officials course taking place on Saturday,” SRL Operations Director Barry McGuffog said. 

“The expansion of the competition has meant that we have had to recruit to our match officials pool, but it is also a good opportunity for our existing referees to undertake some refresher training and for everyone to start on the CATO journey at the same time.”

A longer term objective from the visit will be to ensure that SRL has a minimum of two qualified Match Official Level1 Educators, with a return visit to Scotland deliver the Match Official Level 2 in 2027 scheduled to take place to progress.

For more information or to sign up for the course email: peter.lowis@scotlandrl.com