A player had a chokehold applied to him during the game, Mr Barnes said.
"It was just dirty stuff on and off the ball as well. Everyone could see it, we had a good crowd and they didn't come to see that stuff. We were struggling with numbers after that."
However, Whangaruru coach Hepi Haika said he hadn't seen anything intimidating. "I left straight after that game and according to my team captain and club captain, nothing bad happened.
"They've (Whangaruru) become quite a formidable team and this year we were leading the competition when this sort of stuff came out.
"Tomarata wrote a letter to NRU stating that my players were intimidating their players not only on the field but off it," Mr Haika said.
NRU chief executive Jeremy Parkinson said the union was doing everything in its power to resolve the dysfunction within the grade. "We just want to provide rugby to those that want to play and at the moment there's five clubs that don't want to play Whangaruru, so we're dealing with that," he said.
Mr Parkinson said time would tell if the division-two grade continued. With the 2016 season not scheduled to begin until March/April next year, he was confident the issue could be sorted in due time.
"We've got plenty of time to work through it, go around all of the clubs, work through a process and hopefully come to a resolution that keeps everyone in the game."
Despite this, Mr Barnes felt progress was too slow.
"We've had talks with other clubs, if nothing does get done we're thinking of forming our own competition."
A new competition could involve the likes of Southern, Kaihu Valley and Ruawai taking part - with the possibility of including Mangakahia - under a Northern Wairoa/Rodney structure.
Mr Haika said he was also waiting for intervention from the NRU.
"They said they would get back to us but we still haven't heard from them. I want to know more, especially from the rugby fraternity. I'm there for the rugby and nothing else."
