WHEN WAYNE BARNES called time on his match officiating career after the World Cup, one line jumped out of his retirement statement:
“I will continue to advocate for referees and work closely with the International Rugby Match Officials association to ensure match officials across the globe not only have a collective voice but also the appropriate support network for them and their families, particularly as online abuse and threats have become far too regular for all of those involved in the game.”
That one of the sport’s top officials felt the need to highlight the abuse directed towards referees in his retirement statement was striking, and emphasises just how bad the problem has become. It’s now something which is happening every weekend, with World Rugby recording more that 2,000 direct threats against match officials in recent weeks.
Barnes himself was subjected to death threats after taking charge of the World Cup final between South Africa and New Zealand, where the All Blacks saw Sam Cane red-carded and the Springboks lost Siya Kolisi to a second-half yellow card. Afterwards, Barnes’ wife, Polly, took to social media to highlight the “vile atmosphere” in the ground.
Her feelings may sound familiar to anyone close to a top level official. At the recent launch of the 2023/24 Champions Cup season in London, The42 had the opportunity to sit down with Irish referee Andrew Brace and hear his experiences of dealing with abuse online.
In 2020, Brace was stood down from a Champions Cup game between Toulouse and Exeter after receiving a deluge of abuse after taking charge of the Autumn Nations Cup final meeting of England and France. Some of the abuse was posted under the obituary of his late father, Gary.
For the World Cup just gone, Brace decided to delete X (formerly Twitter) from his phone in a bid to shield himself from the abuse that would inevitably come his way.
Our conversation took place before England’s Owen Farrell announced his decision to step away from international rugby “in order to prioritise his and his family’s mental well-being”. In fact, earlier that morning The42 listened to Farrell speak of his desire to play for England for as long as he can.
Be it referees, players or coaches, the issue of social media abuse is now at a point where it is pushing some of the game’s biggest stars away from the biggest days.
“We only have to look at the World Cup and I know we have to be very careful about what we want our game to become,” Brace says.
Social media now is probably borderline out of control. Anyone can put out anything, or a tweet or a comment and with no repercussions.
“As Wayne has said on various platforms in the last couple of weeks, there needs to be regulation on social media platforms, a license or a passport to make an account, not direct message me and there’s no repercussions, because that’s what’s been happening.
“I don’t fill my headspace now with it because it will just drain my emotional energy. It’s been quite cathartic for me to move on and my family to move on from the England-France game in the last couple of years. And I know if I go on there (social media) and go looking for it, I’m going to find it. Nobody’s going to be going out there and saying, ‘Well, what a great performance Andy Brace did at the weekend’, so what’s the point in going out there looking for it?
“I don’t mind, I’m used to it now. I’ve taken the abuse that comes part and parcel with the game. It doesn’t make it right, but it’s when it crosses the line and they start attacking your family, that’s when we all need to start having a strong stance on that and call out these people who direct message us. Not just us as referees, but players, coaches and teams who are getting it the exact same.”
During the World Cup World Rugby made a proactive attempt to address the problem. Match officials were provided with a platform called Matrix which filtered out abusive messages directed at match officials.
Brace also praises the work of Kevin McManamon. The former Dublin footballer has worked closely with the IRFU’s referees on their mental skills since last year.
“He’s been really good with me and the group in Ireland and the Irish referees about controlling the controllables, and why go looking for it, because all it’s going to do is it’s going to drain your emotional energy and affect my performance then on the pitch on the weekend,” Brace explains.
On the field, the Cardiff-born referee enjoyed a busy World Cup, where the TMO bunker system was implemented in a bid to speed up the game by avoiding lengthy delays with referees making on-field decisions.
The system was far from perfect, and Brace has some reservations.
“When we look at a decision being made, do we just kick the can down the road to somebody else to make the decision. Is that right?
“Our main objective is to speed up the game, we want to get more ball in play. Nobody wants to see my face on the screen for four minutes talking through a decision, but also we need to bring fans and supporters and stakeholders with us, and why we’ve arrived at a certain decision.
“We have to understand that the game isn’t black and white. You could sell me a yellow card decision, I could sell you a red card decision. I think a lot of the time now, we’re so subjective that you can explain one or another decision. I think we have to accept that, and the biggest thing we always strive for is consistency and how we apply that consistency as a group.
“We’ll meet now before the European Cup starts and a lot of us are obviously all refereeing in the same leagues domestically, into European Cup and internationals and that’s what we’re always trying to strive for is consistency, so that If I give a decision one day on the Friday night, it makes sense then if Luke (Pearce) gives another decision on Saturday, or Sam (Grove-White) gives another decision on the Sunday, so everybody has to follow where we’ve arrived at in terms of our decision making.
We don’t want to go out and ruin somebody’s afternoon, we want to speed up the game, we want to get more ball in play.
“But also, we all met after the Six Nations in the Shape of the Game conference – players, coaches, referees, medical, disciplinary, media – and we asked what game do you want us to referee? Do you want us to referee the law? We can go out there and bang 30-plus penalties but is that the game we want to see?
“Or we can go the other way and apply game context and just accept that there will be decisions one way or the other that people are going to agree to disagree on, and I think we all have to agree on that as a game.
“But we need to be better then as a group of officials of arriving at decisions quicker, not rushing a decision or arriving at an outcome that is inaccurate, but we can certainly speed up the game.
“In Ireland, Johnny Lacey, my coach now, he’s always striving to get that strong on-field decision; make the strong on-field decision and move on with the game and trust that your TMO will sweep in the background where you’re clearly wrong.
“I think the misperception out there is ‘Oh, he’s not checking that?’ I have TMO who is always checking absolutely everything on the big stuff because I don’t want to make a big mistake, I want to get what matters and I want to get those big decisions right. But also, when you go and chase perfect decisions, then you end up being inconsistent as a result. I always strive for that in my philosophy with my team and my assistants and my TMO. Don’t chase a perfect decision, let decisions come to you.”
Like VAR in football, one of the issues with the bunker was the experience for match-going supporters who couldn’t follow the decision-making process in the ground.
“We need to do more for fan experience,” Brace continues.
“If I go to a stadium at the moment to watch a game, I don’t know what decision has been made or how that decision has been arrived at, you know? Is that maybe communicate into the stadium? I know they trialled that down south in the Rugby Championship and Super Rugby with the tannoy over the crowd. Again, that’s more cost so how does that work for a domestic tournament or European Cup?
“But we need to bring fans with us. You only have to look at some of the American sports doing the rounds on social media and the fan engagement. I saw 95,000 people watching a volleyball game the other week, because it’s an experience. My mother doesn’t have to go and like rugby, but (should be able to) come in because it’s an enjoyable day out or an evening out. Same for the kids. Definitely we can do more as a sport there for sure.”
