The relentless and nonsensical abuse and threats directed at rugby referee Ben O’Keeffe on social media during and following the recent Super Rugby Pacific final at Waikato Stadium has put several issues in the spotlight.
One is that some people will take advantage of anonymity to write all sorts of rubbish. Another is that some have trouble keeping things in perspective. One more is that for a nation of rugby lovers, some of us have the most tenuous of grasps on the laws of the game.
As a professional match official, O’Keeffe will be used to criticism and the occasional troll on Instagram. And as a paid ref he has a good support network.
But the sheer volume of abuse and nature of the threats he has received following the Crusaders’ 25-20 victory over the Chiefs will be shocking and hurtful and he is right to worry about where it could all lead to.
In a thoughtful response yesterday on his Instagram page after 1News on Sunday revealed the extent of the abuse, O’Keeffe drew a link between it and a disturbing recent incident in which English football referee Anthony Taylor was accosted by angry fans at an airport in Budapest after a Europe League final between Roma and Sevilla won by Spanish side Sevilla on penalties.
It happened after Roma manager Jose Mourinho was seen gesticulating at Taylor at the stadium car park and calling him a “disgrace”.
At the airport, chairs were thrown at Taylor and his family, travelling with him, were seen to be visibly frightened.
Supporters venting about rugby referees is nothing new – ask Wayne Barnes after the All Blacks lost to France in the 2007 World Cup final – but the anger inherent in the messages received by O'Keeffe, written to a New Zealander by New Zealanders after a Super Rugby match, appears to have taken it to new level.
O’Keeffe is right to be worried, and if we could take something positive from this it’s using it as an opportunity for New Zealand to have a conversation about how we treat match officials of all sports and particularly those who are club and school volunteers.
Many of us will have stories of watching and hearing referees being abused from the sidelines in front of impressionable young children.
For example, near the end of my 12-year-old son’s rugby game last weekend the opposition coach, whose team was leading by four or five tries, shouted long and loud at the volunteer referee about missing a real or imagined knock-on.
That’s at the very mild end of the scale, clearly, but the criticism can weigh on the volunteer and it’s normalised for the children on the pitch.
A friend of the family told us recently how after refereeing a secondary school football game she was accosted near her car by a group of opposition parents angry at one of her decisions during a 1-1 draw. She was alone with her son.
It didn’t get physical but it was ugly and upsetting and, given it's now happening at both amateur and professional levels, it just might be the sad reality of our sporting future.
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