A local referee in New Zealand has gone viral after laying down the law to a lippy player during a grassroots fixture in the New Zealand Barbarians U85kg Club Cup.

The match official was mic’d up at the time for a television broadcast, which captured the interaction, where the ref told the player to ‘shut up’ and ‘come here’ for a talking down.

Not surprisingly, the player in question providing too much backchat was a halfback who protested the ref’s decision not to send an opposing player off.

“You, come here. Shut up and come here,” the referee instructed. “One more word out of you and I’m just going to send you to the bin.

“Because do you know what you could be? A good referee with the knowledge that you think you have got.

“Get back there and shut up, you’ve got the penalty, carry on.”

To the player’s credit he took the ref’s advice and remained silent during the spray.

The commentators found the interaction amusing, while even professional referee Ben O’Keeffe responded to the video with two clapping hand emojis on Instagram.