Aidan Cameron: Don't whistle up a storm, please

Wayne Barnes became a target over his refereeing skills in the 2007 quarter-final match in Cardiff. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Almost all referees in this country receive no payment for their efforts, apart from the select few who are lucky enough to call it their day job.

It was a role I instantly fell in love with, for I think there is no better view of the game than what you get one step behind the ruck.

But I was also instantly hit with the weight of expectation and the pressure exerted from those infinitely wiser men on the sidelines who thought that the man with the whistle should be controlling their game like a true professional in the vein of a Paddy O'Brien or a Steve Walsh.

Over the past five years of refereeing, I have been called many things - most starting with "useless ..." or "you complete ..." and ending in any number of words that will forever remain unprintable.

But it was a friendly intermediate school game I officiated at a couple of weeks ago which spurred me to speak out about the endemic nature of abuse in our game.

Here I was, on a drab Dunedin afternoon overseeing a social but pretty poor game of rugby, having to cop comments from a couple of 11-year-olds who felt obliged to tag me with the infamous "c" bomb and other terms which questioned my sexuality.

Unfortunately, that was not the first time I had been a victim of the cursed word after a team of premier club players were loudly told not to bother with "the useless little [insert above expletive here] because he doesn't know anything" by one of their management team.

On another occasion, I prepared to pack a scrum only to receive an expletive-laden death threat from the open-side flanker.

Granted I wasn't having the best day of my life with the whistle on any of these occasions but what gives them the right to treat a volunteer in such a way?

The saddest thing is that all of these incidents are only from this season; many others in seasons past have been forgotten or brushed off, as we referees are taught to do.

To give an example of just how endemic this abuse is among the New Zealand rugby community, one only needs to look at the reaction to Wayne Barnes' performance in the 2007 quarter-final with France.

Granted, the man previously touted as the best new referee in the world made errors, some at crucial stages, and he would admit his actions had an influence on the game that he would have liked to avoid.

But for a referee to receive death threats and personal abuse on internet sites and for another referee's review of his performance to take up the entire front page of a national newspaper's sport section in the days following the Cardiff match is a simple illustration of just how concerned we can be in this country not with the performance of the 22 players involved, but with that of the one man in the middle who simply attempts to provide the game with some credibility.

I hope we as a country have learned from the mistakes of 2007, erring against the sort of violent reaction and vitriol which surrounded Barnes' performance. But the mantra which every player should be told, that the referee's decision may not be correct but is always right, still hasn't dawned on many of those involved in our great game.

We should ask of our referees, especially those who are not paid to do the job, only that they attempt to exhibit their skills to the highest possible degree, and present a fair, balanced approach to any game.

I have no doubt that most of the New Zealand rugby fans appreciate the work of our volunteer referees and give them due praise for the work they do every Saturday on rugby fields across the country.

Nor do I deny the public's right to keep referees on their toes from the sideline, pointing out how far offside the backline has been for the entirety of the game; or how that blindside flanker never seems to release the tackled player.

But the moment it becomes personal, that volunteer is affected in ways that cannot be comprehended by the common heckler.

I have heard of many local referees who have fallen out of love with the game they grew up with because the gloss of a good game is so often tainted by the behaviour of those involved.

So, if any message can be taken from this, I implore the New Zealand public to treat the officials at this World Cup with the respect and dignity they deserve as the top referees in the world; and to carry this respect on to paddocks across this country towards all volunteer referees.

We try our very best to keep our eyes on the ball, and if we take them off it, we expect to be told.

But when it becomes abuse, it only takes away from the game we call our own, and has no place in the future of rugby in New Zealand.