A Bay of Plenty junior rugby coach has been suspended until 2019 for abusing a first year referee.
In a statement released today, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union Disciplinary Committee said it suspended the coach on May 23 until the start of the 2019 rugby season.
The Under 13 coach did not appear before the disciplinary committee having already been stood down by the club prior to the hearing. A club committee member attended on his behalf.
The suspension stemmed from incidents that took place during an Under 13 match on Saturday, May 20. The match was being refereed by a first year referee in only his second officially appointed game of the season. During the match, the coach began to verbally abuse the referee from the touch line after what he believed to be a dangerous tackle on one of his players was supposedly missed by the referee, the statement said.
The verbal abuse continued at periodic intervals for the first half. The referee's father, an experienced registered referee, who was acting as touch judge for the match, approached the coach at half time and asked him to stop, but was ignored as the abuse continued throughout the second half.
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union operations manager Neil Alton said: "The disciplinary committee have delivered a strong message to coaches, players and supporters that this behaviour will not be tolerated. We rely on our great group of referees who volunteer their time to ensure we are able to coach, play and watch a game we all enjoy."
Referee manager Pat Rae said: "Whilst I am disappointed that one of my first year referees had a negative experience early on in his refereeing career, I'm pleased to say that this incident is a very rare occasion. The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union has been working extremely hard to make all rugby games on a Saturday a positive experience for everyone involved, including the referees."
Last year technical zones were introduced for all 15-a-side rugby from Under 11 up, in addition to the crowd control barriers already in place. Technical zones, rectangular boxes located on either side of the half way line on one side of the field are designed for the teams and are where coaches, managers, reserves and their medics/water carriers must remain during the match.
"Technical zones remove the opportunity for coaches and others to roam up and down the side line shouting instructions at their players. What invariably happens is that when a decision goes against them, those instructions at players suddenly become verbal abuse at the ref," said Rae.
The inclusion of technical zones has had an overwhelming positive effect on referee abuse.
"Last year up to the end of May, we had 18 reported referee abuse complaints resulting in a disciplinary hearing. So far this year there have been 9, a 50 per cent decrease. This is exciting because less referee abuse complaints increases the chances of retaining our referee membership for years to come," said Rae.
