Mike Whittaker
Referees in England
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Problems with the parents.
- Thread starter Mike Whittaker
- Start date
Hi
I had an incident last year at a national colts semi final, execellent game of rugby spoiled by parents fighting.
Two mothers pulling each others hair and parents trading blows. Someone ran on the pitch and kicked somebody in the head.
I abandoned the match, the police where not called and it was dealt with by the RFU very well I may add.
I did another match last year, u15 semi final of county cup match this time the police where called. A parent tried to hit another parent missed and hit a 15 year old scrum half when the match had finished.
So is it getting worse or better reported ?
Who knows, but this year I have done a few U15,U16 and colts semi finals good crowds with no trouble. I am getting better as a referee so I have to ask myself was there something I could have done differently to pre empt the trouble.
I had an incident last year at a national colts semi final, execellent game of rugby spoiled by parents fighting.
Two mothers pulling each others hair and parents trading blows. Someone ran on the pitch and kicked somebody in the head.
I abandoned the match, the police where not called and it was dealt with by the RFU very well I may add.
I did another match last year, u15 semi final of county cup match this time the police where called. A parent tried to hit another parent missed and hit a 15 year old scrum half when the match had finished.
So is it getting worse or better reported ?
Who knows, but this year I have done a few U15,U16 and colts semi finals good crowds with no trouble. I am getting better as a referee so I have to ask myself was there something I could have done differently to pre empt the trouble.
ExHookah
Argentina Referees in Argentina
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I've heard reports of this sort of thing happening at youth sports event in the states too, and of course we've all seen the TV footage of that swimming coach (alos the swimmers Dad) who was so dissapointed with the swimmers performance that he thought beating her was the answer.
The cynical part of me would say that this is clearly a case of parents who had never achieved much in sports themselves and are now living vicariously through their kids. However there's got to be more to it than that.
I know that Rugby is almost a religion in Gloucestershire, I went to school there for 3 years and loved it. I hope to be back there on exchange at some point soon as well, and I know that it's not something that's isolated to that area.
I just wonder what it is in general that can cause parents to snap like that. Not only to behave like that in public, but to behave like that in front of their kids.
The cynical part of me would say that this is clearly a case of parents who had never achieved much in sports themselves and are now living vicariously through their kids. However there's got to be more to it than that.
I know that Rugby is almost a religion in Gloucestershire, I went to school there for 3 years and loved it. I hope to be back there on exchange at some point soon as well, and I know that it's not something that's isolated to that area.
I just wonder what it is in general that can cause parents to snap like that. Not only to behave like that in public, but to behave like that in front of their kids.
No
Police where not called as after I abandoned most of the people dissapeared.
So it ended up my word against an array of witnesses all singing from the same hymm sheet.
But there was an anonymous letter and somebody who backed up my version of events, the clubs invlolved got their just deserves.
Again I was a referee at an U12 competition I refereed all day without any trouble, compliments from parents and players a like. An old society B1 referee pulled rank (so he put it) and did the final. Didn't bother me about finals I referee kids becuase I enjoy there attitude towards rugby and a good referee can encourage them and help them get more from the game.
Anyway I ran tocuh for the B1 referee he was dangerous. Missed high tackle's, scrums being push, pile ups all over the place he was refereeing it like a vets match. At half time I said pretend you have pulled a muscle I will do the second half, he said why I said tempers are becomming heated on the touch line and it would be advisiable as I think you have had beter games.
He became very annoyed with me and said he is replacing me as TJ. No problems with me he was dangerous. 3 minutes into second half another high tackle he missed one lad was clothes lined and was just motionless on the floor.
First aiders came on and a doctor young lad could not move his arms or legs. Couldn't feel anything from the neck down, parent ran on and when he saw his child crying, having a panic attack he tried to hit the referee I managed to stop this and then all hell broke loose between the crowd and this referee, once they realised the extent of the injury.
What a mess, I do not condone what happened but I understood where the lads Dad was comming from, he was dangerous and you have your 11 year old son on floor. If it had been my son I think I would have hit the referee being honest.
Also this made me look at me as a person, I still regret not doing something different, stopping the match carrying on. I should have perhaps had a word with the coaches, if all 3 of us had gone over and said I am taking over, this may not have happened.
Well there is a happy end to the story, the yound lad made a full recovery and the referee from that day on will not speak to me.
He said I am reporting the guy to the police for assault you saw what happened, I said I did and I will not be on your side in any shape or form and if you get me involved I will have to tell them there was extream provocation caused by inept refereeing, if the guy is paralisied you are not going to come out of this well.
He told me to **** off and never spoke to me since, he stills refereeing vets
When he sees me he looks away
Police where not called as after I abandoned most of the people dissapeared.
So it ended up my word against an array of witnesses all singing from the same hymm sheet.
But there was an anonymous letter and somebody who backed up my version of events, the clubs invlolved got their just deserves.
Again I was a referee at an U12 competition I refereed all day without any trouble, compliments from parents and players a like. An old society B1 referee pulled rank (so he put it) and did the final. Didn't bother me about finals I referee kids becuase I enjoy there attitude towards rugby and a good referee can encourage them and help them get more from the game.
Anyway I ran tocuh for the B1 referee he was dangerous. Missed high tackle's, scrums being push, pile ups all over the place he was refereeing it like a vets match. At half time I said pretend you have pulled a muscle I will do the second half, he said why I said tempers are becomming heated on the touch line and it would be advisiable as I think you have had beter games.
He became very annoyed with me and said he is replacing me as TJ. No problems with me he was dangerous. 3 minutes into second half another high tackle he missed one lad was clothes lined and was just motionless on the floor.
First aiders came on and a doctor young lad could not move his arms or legs. Couldn't feel anything from the neck down, parent ran on and when he saw his child crying, having a panic attack he tried to hit the referee I managed to stop this and then all hell broke loose between the crowd and this referee, once they realised the extent of the injury.
What a mess, I do not condone what happened but I understood where the lads Dad was comming from, he was dangerous and you have your 11 year old son on floor. If it had been my son I think I would have hit the referee being honest.
Also this made me look at me as a person, I still regret not doing something different, stopping the match carrying on. I should have perhaps had a word with the coaches, if all 3 of us had gone over and said I am taking over, this may not have happened.
Well there is a happy end to the story, the yound lad made a full recovery and the referee from that day on will not speak to me.
He said I am reporting the guy to the police for assault you saw what happened, I said I did and I will not be on your side in any shape or form and if you get me involved I will have to tell them there was extream provocation caused by inept refereeing, if the guy is paralisied you are not going to come out of this well.
He told me to **** off and never spoke to me since, he stills refereeing vets
When he sees me he looks away
The referee in the Chosen Hill v Bristol match was running touch at our cup game this evening, so I had the chance of a long chat. Unfortunately we felt the whole thing was sub judice, so I can't give any detail. I can say that the violence broke out after the game had finished. It has all been reported through the proper channels.