Inquiry after rugby games called off in Hawke's Bay

Sideline misbehaviour has forced referees to call off two rugby games - hard on the heels of a club being barred from hosting matches because of unruly incidents.

The Hawke's Bay Rugby Union is awaiting referees' reports on two matches which were called off on Saturday afternoon.

They were a Senior Division 3 match at Whitmore Park, Napier, between home side Napier Technical and defending grade champions and Raupunga side YMP, and a Colts match between Taradale and Havelock North, at Tareha Recreational Reserve, Taradale.

The abandonments came just a fortnight after incidents in a Premier Maddison Trophy match which led to home-side MAC being barred from hosting games at its Flaxmere ground for the rest of the season, because of problems with crowd control.

Water was poured over a referee who had ordered two MAC players off and issued 10-minute suspension yellow cards to two others in a match against Hastings Rugby and Sports.

Both of the weekend's situations are thought to have included abuse of referees or unacceptable sideline behaviour, but union match club development officer and match services manager Gary Macdonald said last night he had not yet read officials' reports on what had happened.

He expected that once he had seen the reports he would discuss them with the union's judiciary chairman, lawyer Blair Robinson.

If necessary a judicial hearing would probably be held on Wednesday.

Witnesses at the game at Whitmore Park, where there was no score at the time the match was called off, say at least one spectator became involved after a brawl developed from an incident involving one player from each side.

The referee copped some abuse as the match was being abandoned.

Mr Macdonald said he understood "sideline behaviour" was an issue in the match called off in Taradale.