Wellington Football Club - Axemen

Our teams for our Premier Men, Reserves, and Women’s teams this week 🪓

Schedule for your Wellington Football Club matches this week

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Official statement post

𝙒𝙍𝙍𝘼 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝘼𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙚:

The President and Chair of the Wellington Rugby Referees Association (WRRA), Ben Van Berkel, confirms that the Executive Committee of the WRRA has decided to not appoint referees to any grade for a weekend of 10-12 July. We had previously advised the WRFU of our intent to not appoint referees if referee abuse continued to occur and following three more referee abuse incidents on Saturday, no referees will be appointed next weekend.

Van Berkel noted that this season already, we have had 19 reported incidents of verbal abuse towards referees, which is not acceptable to his association. He also pointed out that the abuse has occurred across junior club rugby, secondary schools’ rugby and senior club rugby, not all reports have come from within the referees, with some being submitted by members of the public and the abuse has
come from players, club and school volunteers and spectators.

“The WRRA continues, and will continue, to support Wellington Rugby but we have a duty and obligation to support and protect our members first and foremost” Van Berkel says. He reiterates that this decision by the Executive Committee was not made lightly, but given the widespread nature of this continued abuse, we believe all reasonable options have been exhausted and need to take this stand to support and protect our members.

The WRRA has advised Tony Giles, CEO of the Wellington Rugby Football Union, of their decision and looks forward to working closely with him regarding this issue.

Last night the Wellington Rugby Referees Association released the below statement

https://clubrugby.nz/wp/2026/07/05/continuing-referee-abuse-sees-wellington-referees-withdraw-their-services-for-next-weekends-rugby/?fbclid=IwY2xjawS3myNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFFOFZrRDlzU2FsTEZ6ZmZkc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHosy5eszmEE4h5W3pko7beCRW5eBrWOpUo-kh8RHU14ZBBdoEPIQ6pJgJtlz_aem_PKBkSfwM_jL6-Mq2JLaN1A

The Wellington Football Club fully support the referees stand and there would not be a game at any level without them.

Club Rugby is run by volunteers and referees are a vital part of that volunteer community.

Its a shame that some clubs have potentially ruined it for others but the warning was sent out a couple of weeks ago.

Further info about the status and ongoing structure of games this weekend will be advised once known after a meeting tomorrow night between Wellington Rugby and the Referees Association.