A high school rugby game in Christchurch has been marred by allegations of side-line racial abuse.

The game between Cashmere High School and Linwood College under 15 rugby teams took place on the grounds of Cashmere High School on Saturday.

Linwood College Rugby Coach Jason Joesph Tata told Chris Lynch in the final moments, Cashmere supporters hurled abuse at players and the referee.

“They were disagreeing with the referee’s decision on suspected head high tackles from Linwood College players.”

“One Cashmere supporter raised his hands and invited two of our players off the field for a fight.”

He said most of the abuse came from one supporter in his early 20s.

“As you can imagine, this disrupted and upset our boys, and both teams then started hurling abuse at each other which then turned the game into a very aggressive last few minutes.”

Jason Joesph Tata said the referee did miss a couple of head highs before this incident.

“However, this is no way is an excuse to make racist comments towards our boys and this behaviour is disturbing, unethical and has no place in such a sport that is truly kiwiana.”

Cashmere High School Principal Joe Eccleton said he was made aware of verbal abuse from some spectators.

“This type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and undermines the values that we as school hold dear.”

Eccleton said the school had done its best to follow up on the racial abuse allegation.

“However, we have not been able to identify the spectator who made this alleged comment.”

Cashmere High School would seek further information that would help it identify this specific comment and the person involved.

However, the school had identified a player in the senior team who was watching the Cashmere-Linwood game and made other inappropriate comments to the referee.

The school had met with the player and he has been stood him down from rugby for a period of time.

“We absolutely apologise for this player’s comments. They were inappropriate and wrong.”

Eccleton said staff members apologised to the Linwood coaches at the conclusion of the game.

“We also contacted their Head of Sport on Monday morning to express our concern and our assurance that we would follow this matter up.”