PLAYER STOOD DOWN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 4

PLAYER STOOD DOWN

RUGBY FOOTBALL

USED BAD LANGUAGE TO REFEREE J. Crofts, of the Sydenham senior team, i will be stood down for four Saturdays i next season, according to a decision of 1 the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union last evening. When Crofts appeared before the committee last ! evening he declined to make an apology I to the referee to whom he admitted using j bad language. Mr V. C. Empson, who was the referee of a senior/ match between Sydenham and Technical Old Boys on August 12, said in a letter to the union that Crofts had, during the game, continually questioned his rulings in a very nasty tone, and at the end of the game had used insulting language of the very worst order to him.

Before Crofts left the room the chairman (Mr R. R. Masters) told him that he w'ould not get very far in the game if he treated referees in this way-. No referee should be spoken to in such a way, he said.

.The committee rejected an amendment that Crofts should be stood down for only two days. Mr V. L. Jensen said he did not think that any extenuating circumstances could be found in this case.