Referee's should get rid of any idiots shouting foul and abusive language on the touchline, especially coaches. If it's the parents, then tell the coaches to sort them or else you'll abandon the game. Be strong with your words and strong with your actions.

If a referee feels it necessary to run away from a bunch of spotty school kids who probably haven't even started shaving yet then he really ought to find a more suitable hobby.

I would suggest curtain making, knitting or gardening.

I agree. It then needs to be followed with strong punishment from BARLA.

had two games called off this year due to abusive parents, this is first year i have taken a team and i was shocked how bad parents are, and i have found the coaches and touchline managers just as bad

lets not tarnish all parents,coaches and clubs with the same brush,the majority of parents are pretty good and well behaved.i coach at u11s and most games pass with no trouble at all however certain fixtures at certain clubs you just no that their will be tension and most often trouble,imo these clubs have been aloud to get away with it for far too long and thats not down to referee`s its higher up the chain who dont back up their officials with effty fines and bans.

refereeing is an awful job which the most of us wouldnt even entertain doing and they are prone to making errors the same has the players are,i take my hat off to them has they do a job which makes sure we have a game to watch in the first place.

You never fail to crack me up

Well said but something has do be done about the minority who are causing this trouble. At the end of the day if a random person who had never watched Rugby in their life saw this game today they wouldn't be watching the sport again

If it's a minority it's a significant and vocal minority, and it's present at an awful lot of clubs.

True. It will only get sorted when the governing bodies become stricter and start fines. Maybe even move parents further away from the pitch so it will minimise it but it still doesn't get rid of the problem

back in my under 15s days i was once getting so much abuse from the opposition coach i ended up having a punch up with him. sufffice to say he wasnt so vocal or aggressive once he had been owned by a 15 year old in front of 50 people.

And then your alarm clock went off right?

no actually. now stop being a blert bazza.

Maybe you are right.

Perhaps there was a spate of U15's and their parents verbally abusing match officials in the TW2 area of South West London a few years ago.

I reffed an U16s tournament yesterday. The vast majority of players and adults were perfectly behaved. There was one parent of one team, however, who decided to barrack from the touchline. The RFL guy running the comp went over and had some words, and he shut up after a couple of games. If he hadn't, I would have refused to referee any more of his team's games until he removed himself from the vicinity. The key, I've found, is not to get angry or distressed, but to simply hit the "calm and dispassionate" button. In that regard, I guess being a teacher is helpful, because the behaviour is quite similar to that you might get from an unreasonable kid in a classroom. In the past, I have sent spectators off, by halting play until they put themselves in the clubhouse out of earshot. However, it should never get to that. It is absolutely the responsibility of the management of the team in question to control their own "supporters". I'll be coaching this summer in the RLC, and if any of our fans/followers start abusing the ref, it'll be me who tells them to can it.

I ended up doing 18 10-minute games, so I was a bit knackered at the end, and most coaches and players came over and thanked me and the other ref after the final. There are some nutters who set pretty poor examples to kids, but they are a minority, at least in London and the south-east.

Sadly it seems to be a "heartlands" issue, at least in my experience anyway.