Lions vs Brumbies referee was pulled from game at last minute

“I was a player until I was 20,” Brousset said a few years ago. “I had the opportunity to take the referee’s exam by chance when I was talking to someone about refereeing. I thought it might be interesting at times to know the rules properly. That’s how it all started when I was 17. I passed my first exam and then I played my first matches.

“Two years later I stopped playing to try my hand at refereeing. I was asked to make a choice so that I could go on to the highest level. When I made the decision to stop playing, it was my second senior season and I’d understood at what level I was going to stop as a player. I was in Fédérale 3 at Sporting-Club de Rieumes, occasionally in the first team.

“So I said to myself that if I wanted to aspire to a bit of top level football, why not give it a try. My initial goal was to be in the Fédérale 1 within five years. I started to immerse myself in refereeing and here I am, goal after goal.”