Test referees are reportedly growing increasingly wary of taking charge of matches involving the Springboks after their families were abused following Rassie Erasmus’ social media rants against match officials.
According to a report in the Times UK, a number of referees are worried about officiating Test matches involving the world champions as they are concerned that both they and their families will be abused if the Boks lose.
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This comes after Erasmus, the Springboks’ director of rugby, was suspended for a second time in a year by World Rugby for highlighting officiating decisions on his Twitter page.
Erasmus shared short clips from the losses to Ireland and France on social media, calling into question officiating decisions made in those matches, and was subsequently banned for the final two matches of the outgoing tour against Italy and England.
Last year, Erasmus was handed a 12-month ban for his infamous 62-minute video criticising Australian referee Nic Berry for his calls during the second Test of the British & Irish Lions series.
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Both Berry and England’s Wayne Barnes, who took charge of the loss to France, received death threats following Erasmus’ criticism. Their families were also reportedly threatened with violence on social media.
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin says the governing body tried to improve the feedback process between coaches and referees in the fallout of the Lions Series.
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“Everyone, including Rassie and South African Rugby, were frustrated with the length of the process last time. We certainly were. One of the things we looked at on the back of that were the protocols we have around communication pre and post-match between the coaching setup and match officials.
“South African Rugby have accepted the position we’ve taken,” added Gilpin. “They’ve got their own challenges with how they’ve got to approach that. Rassie is an employee of SA Rugby. I’m sure Rassie doesn’t necessarily agree with the decision, but we’ve got to move forward from that. Part of that is a dialogue about what’s working and what’s not.”
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