Violence erupts at Rotorua league match

Fists flew and a father was hit with a fence stake as rugby league rivalry erupted in "ugly" violence in Rotorua at the weekend.
The brawl, on field and off, was sparked when the Otumoetai Eels Rugby League Club scored a try against Ngongotaha in the WaiCoa Bay premiership at Rotorua on Saturday.
Eels fullback Michael Johnston took a knee to the head in the feisty second-half of the game.
He was moved into the recovery position and taken to Rotorua Hospital, believed to have suffered severe concussion.
Play continued around him but with barely minutes left on the clock the ref called time when the ball went into touch.
Shortly before the end of the match a father of a Ngongotaha player wielded a fence stake at supporters on the sideline - striking a father of one of the Eels players, Eels chairman Stan Nicholas said.

"There was a bit of a melee on the field and after one of the rugby players scored it seemed to flare up on the side line," Mr Nicholas said.
The Ngongotaha man pulled a stake out of the ground, that was holding rope, and swung it at the father, Mr Nicholas said.
The Eels father, who was with other supporters, was not badly injured in the attack and "did not retaliate or get involved".
"They just stood there in surprise and other guys stood there and said 'there's no need for that carry on'," Mr Nicholas said.
"I think that guy got a bit embarrassed by his actions."
The referee called time and the Eels won the 40-10 match.
The win was bittersweet, Mr Nicholas said.
"The game has really cleaned up over the last few years.
"We don't need something like that to put a dampener on our game."
Mr Nicholas said players were concerned at what had happened and the club was still deciding whether to lay a complaint.
Ngongotaha coach Damien White could not be contacted this morning but told  The Daily Post the fight was "ugly".
"I don't like it myself but it doesn't help when you've (people) on the other side rarking the players up and encouraging them. I said to the touch judges they had to control the game.
"You can't blame the officials, it's the boys at the end of the day and the officials are doing the best they can, but as they say, you give a monkey a machine gun ..."
Mr White called the ambulance for the downed Johnston, who would likely be out for three weeks.
Marcus Reynolds, general manager of Upper Central Rugby League, said he was disappointed to hear of the fight and said such incidences were "very uncommon" these days.
"It's people's perception of rugby league that there can be fights from time to time but that happened more in the 70s and 80s rather than today. Things are very different these days.
"I'm very surprised to hear [about the fight] because the competition so far has been absolutely superb and the discipline shown by the players and clubs has been outstanding."
Mr Reynolds oversees rugby league in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Coastline and Gisborne regions.
Each district had its own code of conduct and the club and it's players had to abide by those rules. He said if there was a "case to be answered", when the situation was created rather than just happened, it would be brought to attention.
"The thing with sports is that people are playing in a competition and at premiere level there's quite a lot to play for," Mr Reynolds said. "[Fighting] is certainly not a rugby league thing by any means."