Support our Rugby Officials

We all saw the intimidation Wayne Barnes endured after the 2007 World Cup and then the facebook petition against Bryce Lawrence during the 2011 tournament. Lawrence was basically hounded out of the game.

Now French referee Romain Poite is facing the same treatment after making a mistake in the recent All Blacks v Springboks Rugby Championship test. He awarded a yellow card for a tackle on Dan Carter without checking with the video referee to see if it was really warranted. This resulted after a second yellow card for the same offender in the second half in that player (Bismarck du Plessis) getting a red card.
The IRB have responded by effectively publickly disowning Poite by saying that he made a mistake and will be held accountable.

Is this really the way officials should be treated? Should thousands of disappointed fans be able to have such an effect on a man's career because of a mistake.

If you're concerned that referees are going to become so worried about the personal results for them of making a mistake that they refer to the TMO for virtually everything then please like this petition.

Lets push back in support of the referees who do the best they can under huge pressure in the game we all love.