{"id":899671,"date":"2026-09-21T04:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899671\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T04:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T04:34:13","slug":"nrl-open-investigation-into-fans-after-top-referee-pelted-with-rubbish-at-eden-park-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899671\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL open investigation into fans after top referee pelted with rubbish at Eden Park | NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a> has threatened to ban fans who peppered referee Ashley Klein with projectiles, with the integrity unit investigating the aftermath of the Eden Park clash.<\/p>\n

Vision from after full-time in Newcastle\u2019s 12-10 win over the Warriors on Sunday showed Klein being hit with a raft of bottles, cups and rubbish as he walked from the field.<\/p>\n

The footage shows Klein having to be protected by security, as fans abused the veteran referee and projectiles rained down on him.<\/p>\n

The NRL immediately launched an investigation into potential breaches of their spectators\u2019 code of conduct. An Integrity Unit investigator had been at the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf found guilty, they will be banned for a period of time from attending NRL games,\u201d ARL Commission chairman Peter V\u2019landys told AAP.<\/p>\n

Auckland police have since confirmed that no arrests were made, with \u201cno issues to note\u201d other than two pitch invaders.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s crowd of 48,511 marked the biggest ever for a rugby league match in New Zealand, after the NRL made the call to move the game from Mt Smart.<\/p>\n

The fan abuse came after two contentious calls went against the Warriors late in the match, including a decision not to penalise Tyson Frizell for an escort in the dying minutes.<\/p>\n

Newcastle Knights players celebrate winning the semi-final match in Auckland. Photograph: Andrew Cornaga\/AAP<\/p>\n

Warriors great Shaun Johnson hit out at the fan\u2019s response after the match, labelling it \u201cembarrassing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth, what has been an unbelievable night with the colours, the energy, the happiness and celebration,\u201d Johnson said on Sky NZ\u2019s coverage. \u201cBut there is just no need for it. It\u2019s just embarrassing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAshley Klein has probably refereed the best game of rugby league I have seen in a long time tonight. He didn\u2019t take any gamesmanship in terms of people laying down. He didn\u2019t let people approach him whinging.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe didn\u2019t make the game about him. He let the players come and play and they dictated the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warriors coach Andrew Webster had vented his frustration in the post-match press conference, highlighting a bunker strip call on Te Maire Martin and the decision not to penalise Frizell for a possible escort on Leka Halasima<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last one, two points would have drawn the game, he is going across Leka, pretending to try and catch the ball which they\u2019ve told us you can\u2019t do,\u201d Webster said.<\/p>\n

The incident comes after AFL umpires also had cans thrown at them<\/a> while leaving the MCG after Hawthorn\u2019s tight loss to Brisbane in Saturday night\u2019s preliminary final.<\/p>\n

The AFL has also condemned the behaviour and warned of minimum five-year bans for any fans found responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has threatened to ban fans who peppered referee Ashley Klein with projectiles, with the integrity unit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-899671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}