Millom Rugby Union Club have been heavily fined and docked 25 points following a game with Egremont which had to be abandoned.
It was classed as the deliberate abandonment of a Cumbria Counties League game and Millom were charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game.
The game was on October 4 at Bleach Green, Egremont. Two Millom players were dismissed from the field of play by the referee Alistair Jones.
They were subsequently sanctioned for showing disrespect to the referee. Ryan Dickinson has been suspended from playing for four games, with the second player Jonty Peters receiving a one match playing ban.
After the sending offs on 62 minutes, the Millom team left the field, causing the game to be abandoned.
The Millom club were later charged with engaging in conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game by causing a league match to be abandoned because of the conduct of their team.
At a recent disciplinary hearing, chaired by an independent judicial officer appointed by the RFU, the panel found the case against Millom proved.
Additionally, one of the two players sent off for disrespect to the referee was found guilty, the other having admitted his part in the events.
The Millom club were given a league deduction of 25 points and ordered to pay a fine of £2,000.
Of that fine £500 is payable now and the remaining £1,500 suspended until the end of the 2026/27 season and will be withheld if there are no further occurrences of match official abuse.
Cumbria RFU said: “Disrespect and abuse of the match referee in any game must be discouraged, and Cumbria Rugby Union hope that the sanctions imposed in this case will act as a deterrent in the future, but at the same time indicating that severe penalties are at large in appropriate cases.”
In response Millom posted on social media that player welfare was at the heart of the decision to remove the team from the pitch and the Millom RFU committee fully support their coaching staff in that decision.
