By Dale Budge
Drastic action needs to be taken to change the culture of referee-bashing in rugby and it needs to start by putting serious repercussions in place for those that go too far.
For years we have heard about the impact criticism and abuse is having on referee retention and recruitment and it has reached a critical point here in Counties Manukau.
For the second year running, CMRFU chief executive Aaron Lawton has written to clubs begging for help to change behaviours.
But asking for help is not working and it is going to need something significant to change our ways.
I think people see referee abuse as just the odd horror story of physical abuse we see from time-to-time but the reality is the great majority of club rugby fans are as guilty as anyone.
In my role commentating club games over the past two years, I have travelled to all clubs and watched games as a genuinely impartial observer. The behaviour on the sidelines is not acceptable at EVERY club I have been to.
I myself have been guilty of the very thing I complain about now. When I look back to my days representing my local club, I was quick to voice a comment when I didn’t agree with a referee decision. Now I never used foul language or made personal comments and at the time I would have argued that the criticism I made was simply personal opinion and not being disrespectful. But imagine that 200 other people at the same game acted the same way – now you have a cacophony of noise all making similar criticism of the referee. We can’t have that if we want referees to continue.
Forget the bullshit about getting referees to have a thicker skin or to make a better decision etc. It’s a game of rugby – it is not professional and not life or death.
We all need to be better.
I would strongly urge those in charge to bring in rules where if crowd behaviour is not up to scratch, especially after warnings are issued then a loss of competition points, forfeit of the game or monetary fines to the guilty clubs are handed down.
Paying lip service has not worked and now we have a culture of it being ok to complain about referees.
If clubs won’t go for those rule changes (and they haven’t in the past) then I would urge the referees to take action themselves. Refuse to referee at clubs that are repeat offenders.
Refuse to re-start a game unless guilty people in the crowd are asked to leave.
It needs the game itself to police it and we all need to call out poor behaviour.
If you care about the club game, you need to become part of the solution by taking action and that you and those around you are better.
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