Masterton ref takes a stand after ugly incident

The ugly scenes which erupted at the conclusion of the Pioneer vs Carterton Tui Cup premier division rugby match at the Jeans St grounds in Masterton on Saturday have already provoked a sharp reaction.

An extraordinary meeting of the executive of the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Referees Association was held yesterday to review incidents which included Pioneer skipper Tommy Harmon being restrained by his own team-mates before breaking free and having a vocal altercation with match officials.

And they have also led to one of the region's most experienced referees, Goff Moorcock, confirming he would not be available to officiate over the remainder of this season because of this and other instances where referees have been been loudly abused.

The situation involving Harmon - a regular in the Wairarapa-Bush Heartland championship squad last year- came just minutes after he had been red carded by referee Alistair Payne for dissent.

It was a sorry climax to a match which was also marred at times by derogatory comments from a minority of the good-sized crowd who watched Carterton score an upset 24-14 win.

WBRRA spokesman Peter Debney, who was at the game, labelled the after-match ruckus as "very unfortunate" and said it would be discussed at yesterday's meeting, along with matters involving crowd behaviour.

"There are several areas of concern and we need to sit down and decide where we go from here."

Debney was, however, quick to pay tribute to the efforts made by Pioneer players and management to defuse the after-match incidents as "best they could".

They acted very responsibility, that needs to be said."

For Goff Moorcock, who has had more than 25 years of refereeing, the latest situation was the last straw.

He said he would not be available for any further appointments this season because of a strong belief that "someone has to make a statement" which hopefully would lead to the Wairarapa-Bush union taking positive action against players and spectators whose behaviour was unacceptable.

"Enough is enough. The union has to ensure that those who act outside the spirit of the game are held to account," Moorcock said. "Nothing is gained by pussy footing around, they have to get tough, it's the only way to sort things out."

In other Tui Cup matches on Saturday Eketahuna scored a shock 27-25 win over Gladstone, East Coast edged out Greytown 18-12 and Martinborough beat Bush Sports by default.

The latter occurred after a member of the Bush Sports club with close friends in their premier division side died suddenly late last week.