After having played rugby for a long time, I'm most likely going to referee some games this year.
There's two issues I'm not sure I will have to do something about:
1. Some players in the women's competition wear hair pins, e.g. bobby pins (see wikipedia). Although they don't have sharp edges, they're probably illegal:
Since I'm just always nervous about anything happening to anyone's eyes, I'd prefer them to take them off. However, am I really supposed to check for things like that in my first games? No one else has ever worried, I think. I'd probably not set myself up for a great start;)A player must not wear any items containing buckles, clips, rings, hinges, zippers, screws, bolts or rigid material or projection not otherwise permitted ...
2. One of our local pitches is in a terrible condition: very hard, the earth appears to consist of sand and gravel rather than soil. Since the club, the Union and everyone seems to put up with it, I guess so should I? I certainly wouldn't want my kids to play there though.