A Marist player who took to social media to roundly criticise a leading Tasman rugby referee after a crucial loss, has been cited.
Div 2 centre Pene Webber called out ref Angela Cotton over her handling of the Marist-Collingwood elimination final on 27 June.
Pene posted on Instagram that “the ref must have hated us because she was calling our backline offside multi times regardless of us being well onside. They lost the ball and the ref gave them a penalty because she didn’t want us to win. TBH that ref should lose their job. I am being truthful not complaining because we lost. It was just pure horrific lies coming from that ref.”
Emma Riddell chaired a judicial hearing at the TRU offices last night and afterwards confirmed it followed a citing of Pene.
She wouldn’t say who was behind the citing.
The player didn’t appear before the judiciary but his Marist club was represented.
It had earlier taken to Facebook to apologise for the player’s initial spray.
“Marist Nelson Rugby Club is aware of a social media post made by an individual player disparaging one of our union’s voluntary referees. Marist doesn’t condone such actions and apologises to the referee concerned, the Tasman referees, the TRU and general rugby community as well as our own sponsors and supporters. The player’s words do not reflect the Marist Club’s values nor our code of conduct and we will be taking action," the statement read.
Emma confirms the TRU judicial panel’s written decision will be released in due course.
Marist went down 28-24 to Collingwood, after losing a lineout which led to the winning try.
Rugby legend Todd Blackadder watched the match in Collingwood and called the verbal attack on the referee that followed “disgraceful”.
“Quote me on that. Players should adapt to the ref. They need to look at themselves. Her calls were balanced and she sin-binned a Collingwood player. She was really good,” maintains the former All Blacks captain and Crusaders coach.
He pointed out that it wasn’t her fault that Marist turned over the ball that ultimately cost the side the game, ending its season.
Meanwhile, Angela has been appointed to referee the Tasman Trophy Women final between Kahurangi and Waimea in Riwaka on Saturday.
Kick-off at 1.15pm at Cooks Reserve.
