Bounty on a referee's head

An age-group player recently put a price on a referee's head - R1 000 to any player who tackles the match official.

This is what happened in Gauteng recently, according to a report in Beeld newspaper.

Eben Olivier was the referee, a member of the Falcons Referees' Society. The match was a junior league match on a Youth League Rugby Day at Elsburg RFC, played on Saturday, 20 September 2014.

It was the main match of the day between the Under-19 teams of Vereeniging's Junior club and Brakpan.

Ten minutes or so before the end of the match, Olivier sent a Vereeniging lock to the sin bin for 'swearing' at him three times. The touch judge, Martin Swart, heard a player say to his teammates: "I'll give you a thousand rand if you tackle the referee."

Then a player ran into Olivier, who thought it was an accident. However, a minute later a player tackled Olivier and brought him to ground.

At that stage Olivier stopped the match.

Asked by Beeld, Jaco Visser, the chairman of Vereeniging Junior Club, said that he was aware of the incidents. He saw the first incident and was unsure if there was any intention in the contact.

He thought it could have been an accident.

Of the second incident he claimed he was unaware of the R1 000 offer. In the second incident there was uncertainty about the identification of the culprit, because he was not sent off and because the players did not wear numbers.

He said that he had given the referee a name but was not sure if it was in fact the name of the boy who had tackled the referee.

Earlier on that same day there were unpleasant incidents including verbal abuse of the referee Eben Barnard.

Alfred Ross, the chairman of the Falcons Referees' Society, said that the Olivier incident was the fifth case of referee abuse in the province this year.

Presumably the incident will be investigated.

In 2012, a coach in the Falcons region, Schalk Snyman, was brought before an inquiry on a charge of verbally and physically assaulting a referee. He was suspended for five years, three of which were suspended. This year Snyman was one of the three coaches of the Falcons side at Craven Week.

This year a coach in the Leopards Rugby Union, Hennie van der Heever, was found guilty of verbal and physical abuse of a referee and suspended from rugby activities for life.