Referee Abuse

This section deals with verbal and physical abuse of referees by those other than players. E.g. Coaches, Club Officials and Spectators. If you encounter any form of referee abuse, please download and complete the Referee Abuse Form.

Once completed send the form to your regional discipline team, e.g. north.discipline@londonrugby.com. 

We sincerely hope that none of you need to make use of either form, but if you do please ring your area discipline secretary immediately to discuss the process. This form is for use when the abuser is a coach, club official, or spectator. If it is a player then this is dealt with on the usual sending off report when you issue a red card to a player for referee abuse.

If you choose to ignore dealing with these unsavoury persons that unfortunately frequent rugby on the odd occasions then you are only leaving them to abuse your colleague next week. Referee abuse (from players and non-players) has increased significantly in the last couple of seasons and it is totally appropriate to deal with it promptly and firmly. If you do not feel the matter is serious enough to report via the abuse form then do let your area discipline secretary know, as there may have been a number of previous incidents and overall the matter could need the Society’s attention.

Touchline behaviour

Referees should report touchline behaviours that are sustained/repeated and are considered to be (or approaching) match official abuse or disrespect.

This can include unacceptable verbal comments to the referee, but also comments, or goading, aimed at opposition players, coaches and officials. Constituent Bodies deal with this by recognising a pattern of behaviour and taking appropriate actions.

This process only works if referees report these sort of incidents, which in isolation, may not necessarily meet the threshold for a formal report of match official abuse. This allows patterns to be recognised and is a target area for our Constituent Bodies. This will improve the environments for your fellow officials in future matches.