Mike Bubbins was sworn at while refereeing a rugby game
Comedian and rugby referee Mike Bubbins refused to officiate the second half of an under-13s match after being sworn at by the young players and a coach.
The Cardiff-based former PE teacher said the abuse started before half-time when a child swore at him after he gave a scrum to the opposition.
He gave the whistle to another referee and left the pitch.
He said: “I just said ‘I am not doing the second half. 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’.”
As the end of the first half neared he told the podcast Parenting Hell, hosted by comedians Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett, words were exchanged between himself and a player.
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 swore at him and after turning a scrum into a penalty, Mike said the team’s coach told him to blow for half-time.
Mike said there were two minutes until half-time but the coach began taking his players from the pitch. The other team began to follow.
“I said, ‘Where are you going? I’ve not blown half-time yet… take the ball and go and score a try’,” he said.
‘Lack of positive role models’
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 also a rugby coach, one of the hosts of the Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast with Elis James and Steffan Garrero, wrote the BBC Wales sitcom Mammoth, and in another BBC comedy, Tourist Trap.
The comedian with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Joseph Marcell, who appeared in his BBC sitcom Mammoth
He blamed the problems with players on a lack of positive role models.
“I imagine they have parents that do not parent properly and coaches that do not coach properly,” he said.
“They can be the nicest kids in the world, but if these are their role models then that’s that.”
He admitted he gave players some slack as he remembered losing his temper himself as a player.
“But when coaches get involved, I’ve no time for that,” he said.
