Referees co-ordinator Tane Kaiwai was livid at both players and spectators.
"Everybody is welcome to their opinion, but no referee should have to cop the crap he had to endure.
"Our call for a boycott was not a decision taken lightly, but we won't stand by while one of our people is copping that kind of abuse," he said.
Rugby has also been susceptible to threats against referees.
Gavin Benney, a man tasked with helping sort out a broken sideline culture, said a referee was threatened with a knife at a club game.
But the actions at Toll Stadium proved that spectators can be vocal and passionate without behaving badly.
This begs a couple of questions: Why are people sports fans? And why are they so passionate?
American author Adam Sternbergh once wrote that being a sports fan allows you to feel deep emotional investment in something that has no actual real-world consequences.
To put it simply, sports are never guaranteed to end happily. For some, most games end in a highly unsatisfying way. As a fan, you will feel actual joy or actual pain in relation to events that really don't affect your life.
The pain fans feel can lead to negative behaviours such as referee abuse and players attacking both with words and, in extreme circumstances, physical violence.
The most passionate sports fans escape their normal daily life and express themselves freely by "cheering for their team", as well as lashing out at their rivals.
An article by Thomas van Schaik argued that fans display the social psychological phenomenon of disinhibition. The normal constraints on behaviour, such as self-monitoring and self-awareness, are no longer present.
In other words, fans can get a bit reckless and lose the plot.
This can cause them to act on the basis of their immediate emotions and motivations, without considerations that might otherwise moderate their behaviour.
Disinhibition can be a very dangerous thing, but it can be tempered by reminding yourself of a great sporting cliché: It's only a game.
