Games cancelled to stop ref abuse

Players abusing referees has resulted in four rugby league games in the Far North being cancelled this weekend.

The cancellation came after the Taitokerau Rugby League (TRL) judicial committee met on Tuesday evening to consider action over the abandonment of a match on Saturday between the Muriwhenua Falcons and Kaikohe Lions when referee Teira Waenga left the field at Waipapakauri Domain soon after half-time because of abuse he was receiving from players.

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The incident led to the TRL Referees Association telling the judicial committee its members would boycott all games this weekend because of the level of abuse being experienced by referees.

"One of our members, a senior referee, was actually forced to leave the field because of the abuse he was getting," said Referees Co-ordinator Tane Kaiwai.

"Everybody is welcome to their opinion, but no referee should have to cop the crap he had to endure. Our call for a boycott of this weekend's game was not a decision we have taken lightly, but we won't stand by while one of our people is copping that kind of abuse. We want the clubs to send a clear message to their players, their management teams and their supporters, that referee abuse is unacceptable and must end."

The TRL later issued a press statement saying: "This is a game. The referees are human. This is not the NRL."

In the statement, judicial committee member Lyndsay Proctor said: "No ref no game, that's how important our referees are.

"We talked it over with our referees co-ordinator and told the TRL chairman that we all need to stand with our referees in demanding an end to abuse of our officials.

"We know clubs will be pissed off, but it seems like some of them simply aren't hearing the message. All we're asking is that everyone take time this weekend to look at what procedures they have in place to deal with this, and what else they can be doing to make sure it doesn't happen again."

TRL chief executive Hone Harawira said: "If there's a silver lining to this cloud it's the fact that everyone gets to step back and take a look at themselves, think about how important this game is to our communities.

"If we want our kids to play league, if we want our women to play league, if we want our young men to see the TRL as a pathway to a brighter future, and if we want our whanau to come along and cheer for their teams, then we need to tidy our act up. The Referees Association has laid down the challenge, and we need to pick it up."

TRL chairman Dave Bristow was disappointed the issue had to get to this point.

"But I've always backed our referees and I will stand by them on this decision too," he said. "We've had excellent refs in the TRL this year and they deserve to be treated with respect."

Mr Bristow said there would be no TRL games this weekend.

"Round 13 has been cancelled, and clubs will have one last round to stake a claim before the finals begin on August 6."

The cancellations come after news this week that Northland rugby has lost 11 senior rugby whistle-blowers in the last year, mainly because of the abuse they received.