Referee Ben O’Keeffe, booed along with his assistants by some Chiefs supporters after the Crusaders’ Super Rugby Pacific final victory at Waikato Stadium last night, has been subjected to a tirade of abuse on social media.
The Crusaders’ 25-20 victory was their seventh straight championship under head coach Scott Robertson and it came after Anton Lienert-Brown, Luke Jacobson and Sam Cane were sinbinned during the match as the Chiefs consistently struggled with their discipline.
The home side gave up 15 penalties to the Crusaders’ 8.
The majority of recent posts on O’Keeffe’s Instagram page today are derogatory, with some accusing the referee of making money from the game and one outright threatening, saying: “the mobs [sic] coming for you”.
Asked for comment, a Super Rugby Pacific statement read: "The Super Rugby Pacific tournament does not condone in any way the abuse of match officials on any forum and [is] concerned to see some of the comments on social media following the Super Rugby Pacific final.
"Super Rugby Pacific will conduct the usual performance review of the match officials team in the coming days."
New Zealander O’Keeffe, 34, an experienced international referee, was last night assisted by Australian touch judges Angus Gardner and Nic Berry. Kiwi Brendon Pickerall was the television match official.
The three on-field officials were loudly jeered by some elements of the crowd as they walked on to the stage to pick up their finals medals.
All three were in the spotlight before 10 minutes was up last night after Chiefs midfielder Lienert-Brown sinbinned for accidental head-to-head contact with Crusaders wing and new All Black Dallas McLeod as McLeod received a kick-off.
O’Keeffe, who briefly reviewed the incident on a big screen at the stadium and felt it met the yellow card threshold, asked Pickerall to review it once Lienert-Brown was in the sinbin.
While not immediately obvious, Pickerall decided there was a mitigating factor – McLeod dipped slightly after catching the ball – and chose to keep the sanction a yellow card but, in a development this morning, competition organisers Sanzaar felt the incident met the red card threshold.
The case will be considered in the first instance by the Sanzaar Foul Play Review Committee which will take place tomorrow via video-conference.
If banned, Lienert-Brown will miss some of the Rugby Championship which kicks off for the All Blacks against Argentina in Mendoza on July 8.
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan last night didn’t criticise the match officials but couldn’t resist a swipe at a forward pass in the first half by Crusaders midfielder Jack Goodhue which went unpunished.
"The biggest call, momentum swinger, was what I thought was a clear and obvious forward pass, just before halftime,” he said.
"That [would give] us a scrum, we apply some pressure down that end of the field. They scored the play after... that's a big moment."
Just as significantly perhaps, McMillan didn’t go out of his way to defend O’Keeffe either, saying: "I don't want to bag the referee - the crowd did that at the end of the game. Maybe that says something."
O’Keeffe handed out several warnings to the Chiefs for their discipline issues.
Jacobson was yellow carded for not rolling away at a ruck and Cane was sinbinned for the final 10 minutes for being offside at a ruck when the Chiefs were defending their line.
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