News | 13 February 2024
A Cardiff Metropolitan University sport management student has been chosen as an assistant referee in the Women’s Six Nations 2024.
Amber Stamp-Dunstan, 22, from Chepstow, will head to Italy for their game against Scotland on 20th April after World Rugby selected her as one of the match officials.
The student has her grandmother to thank for initiating her refereeing career after putting her forward for a free Welsh Rugby Union course specifically for women in 2019, after Amber suffered multiple shoulder injuries and had to stop playing, which she had been doing since the age of six.
Amber’s refereed at girl’s U15s and U18s matches, before moving on to senior women’s matches. Amber then made history earlier this season when she, along with another female referee, became the first women to referee in the men’s WRU Admiral Championship.
Amber said: “Being a referee takes a lot of hard work but it’s completely worth it to be involved in the game. I’ve had so many incredible experiences from getting involved in refereeing. I’ve made new friends, travelled across the world and put myself out of my comfort zone. It’s given me so many great life experiences and definitely softened the blow of not being able to play.”
Amber Stamp-Dunstan © Welsh Rugby Union
Amber is in her second year studying sport management at Cardiff Met and said the academic staff have been supporting her in pursuing her refereeing career.
She continued: “Refereeing is a huge commitment every week with attending games, training, and watching matches back to analyse them. But my lecturers at Cardiff Met have been really understanding and supportive, allowing me to balance both my studies and this passion outside of university. Refereeing and the sport management course complement each other really well and I’m using lots of transferable skills between both.”
Katie Thirlaway, Dean of the School of Sport and Health Sciences at Cardiff Met, said: “We’re extremely proud of Amber and her determination to follow her passion in refereeing. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to travel to Italy and continue to develop herself as an official in the game.
“At Cardiff Met we have many student athletes and coaches who are using their extracurricular activities to support their degree course, and vice versa, to further themselves and their studies – Amber is a perfect example of this. We wish her the best of luck in Italy.”
Amber hopes that she will be able to continue her involvement in officiating games for some time to come as her knowledge and confidence in refereeing grows. Encouraging other women to get involved in refereeing, Amber said: “I’d say just go for it. You’ll never know if it could be for you until you try it, and it’s a brilliant way of being involved in the game if you can’t necessarily play.”
