Wellington complain at Honiss comments

The Wellington Rugby Union has complained about the conduct of referee Paul Honiss during the team's NPC match against Southland at the weekend and comments he made after the game.

But the union has stopped short of asking the New Zealand Rugby Union not to appoint Honiss to any more of Wellington's games in the Air New Zealand-sponsored competition this year.

Honiss bemused the Wellington team when he told lock Dion Waller to stop criticising his team-mates during the 13-10 loss to Southland.

He infuriated them with a subsequent allegation that Waller threatened to punch halfback Jason Spice and that there was considerable friction among the Wellington players.

New Zealand Rugby Football Union officials said Honiss denied some of the comments attributed to him and said others had been made off the record.

Honiss was not available for comment last night, but Wellington coach Dave Rennie said Honiss had overstepped the mark with his comments on and off the field, and that his interpretation of what happened between Spice and Waller was wildly inaccurate.

"Paul Honiss has spoken out of turn and has obviously assumed a couple of roles besides refereeing," Rennie said. "We are discouraged as coaches from making comment on referees, so it seems a bit odd he is talking about our players in the papers."

Rennie would not comment when asked if he thought Honiss should be steered away from future Wellington games and would not talk about the credibility the Waikato referee would have with the players when he next controlled them in a game.

"I don't want to talk about that because we are going to get him again. What I would say is that his comments make it sound like there is disharmony in the team, which is ludicrous."

Rennie said Honiss' comments reflected his ignorance of the personalities of the players involved and ignored the realities of what happens on a rugby field.

"It's not his role to reprimand players for swearing at other players in their team. If it was, there would be no one left on the field," Rennie said.

NZRFU referees manager Keith Lawrence said Honiss had denied some of the allegations and comments attributed to him yesterday. But he defended the referee's right to intervene when he believed Waller and Spice were having "an altercation."

"He felt it was important to tone that situation down and that's what he did. It is within the scope of his role."

In the interview, Honiss said: "I have refereed Wellington a number of times and I have never seen a Wellington side like it." He added that Waller's remarks to Spice were "obviously ... flippant ... but he had a fair amount of animosity in his face and was pretty stern in what he said to him."

Waller yesterday admitted he exchanged heated words with halfback Spice during the match but was puzzled that Honiss took exception.

He said: "Spice gave me a bit of stick and I gave it back. He would be worried if he didn't see me fired up."

* Northland fullback Hayden Taylor will play his rugby in Italy next season. Taylor, who played his 100th game for Northland against Waikato last weekend, said he had signed with premier Italian club Roma.

- NZPA