The former Southland and South Island rugby representative said Tokanui club representatives met Rugby Southland this week following an incident at a Tokanui versus Bluff rugby match, which led to the Rugby Southland Referees’ Association refusing to provide a referee for Bluff’s division 1 game the following week.
The Tokanui club had been instructed to remain silent about a June 7 incident, he said.
"Everything’s got to go through Rugby Southland.
"I’m not having a bar of it, because I was actually there and saw what happened."
He had urged Tokanui officials to speak out because the club was appearing like the club had "white pillowcases", like the KKK.
He was disgusted by what he witnessed at the Tokanui v Bluff game, where a spectator was "hooking into the referee, calling him a cheating honky c...".
The barrage of abuse carried on with: "This is not New Zealand, it’s Aotearoa, bloody honky c...".
"It was really, really disgusting.
"I’ve been around rugby since the ’70s, I’ve never heard anything being dished [out] to a referee like that.
"The ref was having a bit of a battle ... but he was keeping good control of things.
"He then stopped the game and refused to restart it until the abusive spectator had left the ground.
"The Bluff bench and supporters, to their credit ... got him to the end of the field, whereas they should’ve got him right out of the ground."
Refusing to leave, the abuser repositioned himself at the dead ball line where he, along with a female companion, escalated the bombardment of abuse, even after the final whistle had gone, he said.
Up until the race-based insults started, the game was being played in reasonably good spirits.
But the ref did have two Bluff players in the sinbin, Mr Chisholm said.
"Bluff were down to 13 [players].
"Tokanui were attacking the line and that's when the hooker came around and said, ‘come on you honky c...., come and have a go ... come and get yourself some n.....’.
"That’s just absolutely ridiculous."
He criticised Bluff then playing "the race card" afterwards.
"To pull it the other way around ... that is a load of crap.
"The old race thing, it sort of gets me a bit hot under the collar."
He conceded both teams were not blameless, but he was incredibly disappointed by the incident because referees were too often the targets of abuse.
"Some of them are quite young. They don’t need to be there.
"Why would you give up your Saturdays to go through what that young fella went through that day down there?
"That young fella ... he handled a situation that could have got out of hand and he handled it brilliantly.
"I thought I was a bastard to referee, but at least I liked referees off the field.
"[A] lot of them are still my good mates."
In the past, antagonistic behaviour on the field was left there or apologies would be given and offences smoothed over with a cold beer together after the game, he said.
— Toni McDonald
