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2:02PM Tuesday October 09, 2007
By Edward Gay
All Black fans have taken their rage at referee Wayne Barnes to the internet, posting everything from death threats to advice to the IRB on referee selections.
A site on the social networking site Bebo pretends to belong to the referee himself and includes threats of violence from All Blacks fans.
Some of the more light-hearted postings include jokes about the All Blacks and Mr Barnes.
"It was nice of you to allow the All blacks to score 18 points. what a coincidence, also your IQ!"
Another page on the site is dedicated to anger against the referee and tells readers that if they want to crticise the All Blacks, they can go somewhere else.
The page called "The man who cost New Zealand the World Cup" has 139 members, many of whom blame the IRB and Mr Barnes for the All Blacks' loss. Most of it cannot be printed.
A page that has since been taken down - called We hate Wayne Barnes - had similar content.
The Yahoo Answers site asks: should Wayne Barnes be sent to the sin bin?
Many of the replies call for Mr Barnes to be "put out to pasture" and get some more experience under his belt before being given another high-profile game.
"The idiot should not even be allowed to ref a kindergarten game never-mind officiating at the highest level."
The Nexus blog has a new post saying the World Cup was never New Zealand's to lose and people need to focus on the real issues facing the country.
"Mr. Barnes is now the centre of an internet smear campaign, with several people in various communities offering death threats, and others saying he cost New Zealand the cup, well here's a newsflash for you all, he didn't, we never had, nor were we ever guaranteed the cup, so he can't have cost us something we didn't have to lose".
There aren't many sympathetic responses to that opinion. Readers have posted replies attacking Mr Barnes and the blogger.
Police spokesman Jon Neilson said police are not interested in the threats against Mr Barnes because there is no "criminal intent".
He said if New Zealanders are posting threats when Mr Barnes is in the United Kingdom then it is unlikely anything will happen.
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Originally Posted by LarryNJ
