The most read newspaper in the English speaking world has picked up on the awful doings of a Wests rugby player on Saturday who has been banned for four years for wiping blood on a referee’s shirt and breaking another player’s nose after receiving a red card in a fourth grade game.

The player, fortunate to remain un-named despite his ignominy, made the perhaps critical mistake of conducting this behaviour in a game officiated over by the president of the ACT Rugby Referees Association, Robert Boyes.

Wests coach Craig Robberds told MailOnline the sentencing was mitigated by the fact that the player had a concussion at the time.

‘Obviously we don’t condone anything happening to a referee or throwing punches at a player,’ he said.

However, Mr Robberds said that initial reports of the incident, including that the player punched Wests captain Grant Jones and head butted the referee, were false.

The player in question may be named pending the outcome of a police investigation into the incident.