Wayne Barnes exclusive: Rugby World Cup final referee calls on Government to do more to tackle online abuse

Wayne Barnes has called on the Government to act to stamp out social media abuse in the wake of threats he received after the Rugby World Cup final.

The English referee announced his retirement from the game last week after taking charge of South Africa’s 12-11 win over New Zealand in Paris.

All Blacks captain Sam Cane was red-carded for a dangerous head-on-head tackle following a TMO intervention, which also ruled a similar offence by Siya Kolisi only merited a yellow.

Many Kiwi supporters incorrectly held Barnes responsible and directed abuse at the official.

And practising barrister Barnes, in a wide-ranging interview on this week’s Evening Standard Rugby Podcast, said more action was required against those making threats.

“I think there should be a way of the Government looking at legislating to make sure we can identify these people,” he said.

“So when you’re on board with X or when you’re on board with Facebook, you have to put something in there so we can come back and say, 'OK, this is the person that is abusing Lawrence Dallaglio, this is where they live and we’re going to go and prosecute you because we all know you can’t just write "we’re going to come and chop your head off" willy nilly.'

“If you want to do that, then you should face criminal consequences. And so there should be some legislation around that.”

The 44-year-old was also subjected to online threats when South African fans targeted him and his family in November 2022 and revealed steps were being taken in the game to identify offenders.

“World Rugby… used some forensics, kind of social media specialists during this World Cup to identify people,” he said. “So, they are at the moment searching. So, finding people, not just people who’ve abused me, but we heard some abuse that happened to [England forward] Tom Curry.

“When there are threats, when you cross a line to say, 'Okay, we’re actually going to commit physical harm to you', that’s when I think the governing body can say, 'Right, okay, we’ve identified John, who lives in Twickenham.'

“'John, you’re banned from ever buying tickets at Twickenham again. We’re taking your season ticket off you again and you’re not allowed to be a member of any rugby club because that will say we take this seriously.'”

Barnes, who retires after officiating 111 Test matches, also called on rugby’s authorities to do more to support the victims of social media abuse because of the damage it inflicts on their families.

“The one thing World Rugby’s never done is really put in place some kind of form of counselling or some form of psychological support,” he said. “We’ve been away for eight or nine weeks in Paris. I think having that member of the team is something, which I’ll now look at to say, not just me.

“Because I think you do get used to it. You do get those scars on your back. It is a little bit of water off a duck’s back but, when your family start to get it, that’s the people who probably need the support because they’re not used to it and they shouldn’t be used to it because they’re not the ones who choose to be a ref or a player or a coach.”

Barnes, whose autobiography 'Throwing the Book; The Strife and Crimes of a Rugby Referee' is out next week, also urged rugby’s administrators to stop giving officials mixed messages he feels contribute towards some of the controversial decisions in the sport.

Citing a conference with leading stakeholders in the game earlier this year, he said: “They said, ‘We need this game to be more entertaining’. Brilliant. We want the game to flow. So, what that means is blowing your whistle less.

“So, you then go to a meeting with the directors of rugby and the head coaches of international games. And they say, ‘We want you to get every single decision right’.

“Now the game doesn’t know where it wants to be. So you either have to say to referees, ‘Let things go more, keep players on the pitch more’, and that we’re going to have a more free-flowing game. But, then what you can’t have is coaches coming out to the media saying, ‘Here’s seven examples of Wayne not blowing his whistle’.

“At the moment, referees are being dragged from pillar to post saying ‘Add flow to the game but get everything right’ and it’s not compatible.”

The Evening Standard Rugby Podcast with Lawrence Dallaglio is a weekly podcast that launched in 2021 and is recorded at Voxpod Studio. The podcast is available to download on Acast, Apple and Spotify.