Man 'embarrassed' over rugby referee incident

Falefiaoalii Faalolo. Photo / APN

The man who stormed on to a rugby field and allegedly assaulted a referee at a children's game is embarrassed by what happened.

Falefiaoalii Faalolo, 50, will appear in court tomorrow to face a charge of common assault. He was arrested after he allegedly ran out and grabbed the throat of the referee - who is also a policeman.

The incident occurred on Saturday in Papatoetoe, during a match between under-10s from the Papatoetoe club, after a try was scored near fulltime. A witness said the referee - who is believed to be a player's father - was grabbed by the throat

After being approached by the Herald Faalolo said he "couldn't believe it's got this far". He disagreed with some of what had been said about the incident by witnesses but would not discuss what happened.

Asked if he was embarrassed he replied: "Yeah, sort of embarrassed", but would not comment further.

A witness said the incident came out of the blue.

"The [attacker] was shouting, "Why don't you referee the game properly? ... It was outrageous behaviour and totally unacceptable in any sport and at any age."

The witness said the referee was walking back to the half-way line when someone ran on to the field. "He must have run 10 or 15 metres to get to the referee, who didn't see it coming."

Last month, a player was arrested for breaking a soccer referee's jaw after being sent off. Referee Len Gattsche was attacked in the 79th minute of a division-two match between Manukau City and Tauranga City.

Tama Fasavalu, 36, was suspended from the game indefinitely and fined $1000 by the Auckland Football Federation.