The Scotsman Sat 4 Nov 2006
Verbal abuse: nine-month ban for club player, one-week ban for pro player
DAVID FERGUSON ([email protected] )

THE chairman of the SRU's disciplinary panel has defended the union from accusations of double standards after a lenient one-week ban was handed down to a professional player for swearing at a referee.

Mark Robertson, the Borders winger, was sent off for verbally abusing experienced ref Andy Ireland while playing for his club Melrose against Hawks two weeks ago. He was banned for a week and so is free to play this weekend. Just two weeks ago Stobswell players Justin McNabb and Craig Cook were banned for nine and three months respectively for verbally abusing a referee.

McNabb's offence was worse as the match referee Mark Lambley, a serving policeman, claimed that he was forced to step back as McNabb came face-to-face. He stated: "I was subjected to verbal abuse that I have never experienced in all my years of playing and refereeing."

Lambley stated that he had already warned the team, as a whole, to stop "sustained" verbal abuse, another factor taken into account. Robertson 'merely' used the 'F' word when heatedly questioning a decision by Ireland. However, the fact that swearing at a referee can attract such wildly differing sanctions has left a bitter feeling that the SRU apply one rule for amateur players and another for professionals.

Stobswell are currently appealing against McNabb's ban and so were reluctant to comment, but a spokesman admitted: "We are bemused, to say the least."

However, Lorne Crerar, the chairman of the SRU's discipline panel, insisted: "We are trying to clamp down on this area because it is damaging the sport, but there are no double standards - professional players are treated the same as someone playing for a club's third team.

"The sanctioning policy is laid down by the IRB so that we can deal with incidents across the world and be as consistent as possible; it's called the universality principle. These two incidents are quite different, even though they both come under the general heading of verbal abuse of a referee.

"In the IRB's recommended table of sanctions, there is a low entry, mid entry and high entry depending on the gravity of the offence, and then within that we can look at off-field factors, such as whether the player admitted his actions, showed remorse, had an unblemished record etc, and the suspension can go up or down from that recommended.

"Mr McNabb's case, which was gratuitous and threatening, was in the high-entry bracket, and had mitigating factors which increased the suspension, whereas in [Robertson's] case it was low-entry and the mitigating factors would have further brought the suspension down."

The IRB are also concerned at a growing trend of abusing referees. They announced yesterday that, starting from today's Test match between Wales and Australia in Cardiff, match officials are to enforce a 'zero tolerance' policy when it comes to players disputing decisions on the field, as well as indiscriminate use of the boot.

Paddy O'Brien, the former New Zealand referee, is now the IRB's referees manager. He revealed: "Referees will penalise teams - including players attempting to influence decision-making and appeals to touch judges - through free kicks, penalties and even yellow cards. The message has to be clear. Back-chat and arguing with a match official will not be tolerated."

This article was originally posted on 4-Nov-2006, 08:18 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 4-Nov-2006, 08:23.