"Protect" partner or let him TKOB?

[SC Official]

This happened in a recent game where I was U1.

Young U2 (who does a great job and has some college experience) is in the home coach's doghouse from the getgo. Late in the second quarter, he whacks a home team player for taunting, and predictably the coach goes nuts. As partner is reporting the T, rather than him getting to deal with the coach himself, the R comes in and makes him go opposite. (The coach yelled "We can't have softness in my gym!" which I thought was T-worthy but I wouldn't step over the R or U2 to whack him.)

The sentiment of the U2 in the dressing room was that the R coming in added fuel to the coach's perception that the U2 was incompetent and needed to be protected by his veteran partner. The R was adamant that he did the right thing by getting the U2 out of the way of the coach and not calling a T on the coach. The R said we should go opposite after calling any T (not just one on a coach), which I don't think makes sense under high school mechanics. (Obviously the typical expectation when a coach gets whacked is for the calling official to go opposite.)

I tend to agree with the U2 in that he was more than capable of handling the coach by himself and that nothing good came from the R stepping in attempting to "save the day." If the coach needed to be whacked, so be it, and it seemed like the R was only interested in preventing that, which I thought was wrong.

Anyone disagree with me or have other thoughts?