Welsh comedian Mike Bubbins refused to officiate the second half of an under-13s rugby match after receiving verbal abuse from a player and a coach.
Bubbins, who is a rugby referee, claims a child swore at him just before half-time after he had given a scrum against the team in question. Refusing to tolerate such behaviour, he left the pitch and handed the whistle to another referee.
"I just said 'I am not doing the second half!'" he told the Parenting Hell podcast. "You can referee it. I don't need this. I had the coach and the players on the pitch swearing at me at an under-13s rugby game.
"My boy's team were playing, we just happened to be a lot better than they were, but rather than thinking 'we are getting beaten by five tries in the first half because we are not as good', they thought 'this must be the referee's fault because we cannot possibly be that bad'."
In the podcast hosted by comedians Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett, Cardiff-based Bubbins said the swearing began a few minutes before half-time.
The former PE teacher said he told the boy: "If you have got something to say to me have a chat with your captain and he can come and have a word with me."
The boy didn't react well, and ended up swearing at him, which is why Bubbins turned the scrum into a full-arm penalty. Despite the fact there were two minutes left in the half, the coach demanded Bubbins blow the whistle for half-time. Remarkably, the coach ignored the referee and began taking his players from the pitch which prompted the other side to follow suit.
"I said, 'where are you going? I've not blown half-time yet... take the ball and go and score a try'," he said.
When they did, the other team's coach asked him if he was going to count the try.
"Of course I am," said Mike, who is a rugby coach and one of the hosts of the Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast.
"I imagine they have parents that do not parent properly and coaches that do not coach properly," he added. "They can be the nicest kids in the world, but if these are their role models then that's that."
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