{"id":13370,"date":"2026-05-25T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13370"},"modified":"2026-05-25T15:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:56:24","slug":"kids-saturday-sports-is-not-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13370","title":{"rendered":"Kids Saturday Sports is NOT the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the kids lost their game because the adults on the sideline chose to behave like bullies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waikato Junior Rugby League cancelled all it’s Sunday junior fixtures last weekend after what organisers called an \u201cunacceptable increase\u201d in sideline violence and abuse, with incidents centred at Hopuhopu Sports Park in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Keep in mind, win or lose the sun will still rise in the morning and remember, the kids would have had a great time and so should you.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The board says adults have been fighting in car parks, threatening staff, verbally abusing junior referees and mistreating operations volunteers \u2014 behaviour so extreme organisers felt they had no option but to protect tamariki by stopping play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairperson Jamie\u2011Lee Marriot said the decision was not taken lightly and that safety and wellbeing were the league\u2019s highest priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a one\u2011off flare\u2011up. Clubs and community leaders say poor sideline conduct has been a long\u2011running problem, and it has worsened to the point some teams struggle to find coaches because adults refuse to tolerate being abused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signs on many sports fields warning parents that \u201cthis is not the World Cup\u201d have been a feature for years, but reminders and posters have failed to curb the worst behaviour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
All sport should be fun for kids and parents need to remined themselves, Its not the world cup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Waikato Rugby chief executive Dr Amy Marfell had already publicly condemned adult misbehaviour, saying young people \u201cdeserve much more than screaming from the sidelines\u201d and that abuse of referees, coaches and volunteers must stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cancellations follow a shocking school match incident earlier this month in which parents allegedly punched two children and put another in a headlock at an under\u201114 game between St John\u2019s College and Fraser High School; police are investigating. That episode appears to have been a catalyst for the league\u2019s clampdown.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Issues over parental behaviour has been talked about for decades.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Community reaction is mixed: anger and disappointment from families who want their kids to play, and relief from others who say organisers finally acted to protect children and volunteers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The league says it will work with clubs to restore \u201cappropriate standards\u201d before fixtures resume. The test now is whether clubs will enforce codes of conduct, discipline offending adults and back referees \u2014 or let children keep paying the price for grown\u2011ups who have lost perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com All the kids lost their game because the adults on the sideline chose to behave like bullies. Waikato Junior Rugby League cancelled all it’s Sunday junior fixtures last weekend after what organisers called an \u201cunacceptable increase\u201d in sideline violence and abuse, with incidents centred at Hopuhopu Sports Park in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia. The board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[1228,511,113,1226,1225],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-13370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-behaviour","9":"tag-child-abuse","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-rugby-league","12":"tag-sport"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Rugby-No-Excuse.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13376,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions\/13376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}