Ahead of the new season the Vodacom United Rugby Championship has worked with its teams to ensure that the high levels of respect towards match officials are upheld as a core value of the sport.
The goal, which is also shared by other competitions and leagues, is to maintain a healthy level of respect towards those responsible for officiating our games in an increasingly demanding environment.
Everyone involved in our sport has a role to play upholding the core standards which underpin the game. Players, coaches, fans, media outlets and broadcasters rely on match officials to be at their best every week while competitions and unions play a huge role in giving them the right structures to perform.
Like players and coaches, match officials prepare rigorously for games and their performances are subject to immediate scrutiny in the public sphere which can have negative impacts on the mental health of them as individuals as well as their family and colleagues.
Our teams are understanding that on the pitch, remonstrating with match officials or the display of dismissive or disrespectful body language have no place in our sport.
Additionally, public comment, whether spoken or published to social media, is subject to our disciplinary rules and on both fronts our teams are keen to ensure they play their part as positive role models.
The league would also encourage those who promote and publicise the sport (media outlets and individuals) to bear in mind the impact of their coverage and content and how it can escalate a detrimental discussion around match officials.
Nobody in professional sport is beyond fair criticism, however, no individual should be subjected to abuse or online harassment either.
Tappe Henning, Head of Match Officials, said: “We are very proud of the relationship we have built between our teams and match officials. It is based around respect and the opportunity to have a fair say in how our games are played.
“Rugby is a sport full of intense emotions and our players and match officials are fully aware that they have a shared duty to support the flow of the game. Everyone on the pitch is human and we must treat each other as such. Having spoken with our coaches we know they believe in this as one of the core values of rugby.
“Away from the pitch we really want to encourage people to pause for breath on social media and to not encourage pile-ons which ultimately solve nothing. We like to be open with our ambitions on creating high standards of refereeing and we ask those with big audiences to be mindful of how they position the performance of match officials.”
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