Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

South Africa rugby chief wants crack down on 'hot-headed thugs'

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - AUGUST 10: Springbok supporter Pieter Van Zyl is removed from the field by officials after assaulting Irish referee David McHugh during the All Blacks 3023 win over the Springboks in the TriNations rugby match at ABSA Kings Park Stadium, Durban, Saturday.. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)

South Africa Rugby president Mark Alexander is writing to all 15 member unions demanding a crack down on “hot-headed thugs” who physically or verbally abuse match officials by banning them for life.

ADVERTISEMENT

It follows a second incident involving the assault of a referee in the Eastern Province region of the country.

As a result, Alexander wants disciplinary panels to take immediate action when an issue arises and throw those guilty out of the sport. He told South African media: “These hot-headed thugs who physically assault officials have no place in the sport and should be banned for life from participating or attending.

Video Spacer
Video Spacer

“We must protect our match officials – without whom there would be no sport – and the message must out go out in the strongest possible terms that such actions will not be tolerated.

“Attacks on referees are rare but when they occur provinces must not hesitate to act.

Related

“These attacks have been condemned by the relevant unions and I trust they will follow through by bringing these matters before disciplinary committees. I shall be repeating our message of ‘zero tolerance’ for such behaviour with our members.

“There can be no sympathy or toleration of the assailants. There is no reason at all why anyone involved should lay a hand on a match official. If it does not happen in the most pressured environment of Test rugby, why should it happen at a club match? It must be clamped down on most severely.”

ADVERTISEMENT

O2 Inside Line: This Rose | Episode 1

New Zealand v Ireland | Rugby World Cup 1995 | The Vaults

Behind the scenes with the NEW ZEALAND women's sevens team in Perth | HSBC SVNS Embedded | Episode 5

Argentina v Australia | HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 | Men's Final Match Highlights

New Zealand v Australia | HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 | Women's Final Match Highlights

The Dupont Ploy: How France went from underdogs to Olympic gods | The Report

Former rugby player is truly an NFL superstar | Walk the Talk | Jordan Mailata

Boks Office | Episode 33 | Dupont's Toulouse Too Good

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

3 Comments
B
Blair 612 days ago

This is the result of Rassie and the SA media criticising the referees for every springbok loss. If the SA rugby leadership doesn’t show any respect towards the match officials why do they expect their players to do the same?
If the springboks lose this WC it’ll be the refs fault, not the teams

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

LONG READ
LONG READ Ireland are Six Nations favourites but issues are starting to mount Ireland are Six Nations favourites but issues are starting to mount
Search