The NRL will investigate an ugly incident in which a soft drink bottle was thrown at referee Jason Robinson at the end of Monday's fiery match between South Sydney and Canberra at Aussie Stadium.

NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said the league would liaise with security staff at the ground and peruse video tape on Tuesday in a bid to identify the offender before imposing a ban.

"Clearly we don't want fans like that at our games," said Annesley.

"We need to see the video footage and security reports before we ban anyone."

Robinson was struck in the back of the neck by the bottle but was not seriously hurt.

It's the second time a referee has been physically threatened after a man wearing a New Zealand Warriors jersey threw an unidentified object at Tony Archer following his team's loss to North Queensland in Auckland on Sunday.

The projectile missed Archer but the fan was forced to apologise to the whistleblower.

Steve Lyons and Robinson, who was struck in the back of the head by the bottle, were used as referees in Monday's game as part of the NRL's trial of an interchange system.

Robinson refereed the opening 20 minutes and Lyons took over for the rest of the half when the Rabbitohs won the penalty count 8-2.

In the second half Robinson took control and reversed the penalty count, which finished at 10-all overall.

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