The day after the last of the South Wales derbies in the Christmas period between the Ospreys and Scarlets I was given a chance to talk to the referee from the night before, Nigel Owens. The Welshman has been called the best referee in the world by many people this year including former Welsh international and friend Jonathan Davies.
In a short conversation with Owens it is easy to see why he is so popular and why players like being refereed by him. He is honest, open and fair in his answers just as he is when he is officiating.
Owens said the “game wasn’t bad for a Welsh derby”. He did receive some stick from Ospreys fans both at the game and on Twitter later on after a series of indiscipline’s by the Ospreys allowed the Scarlets to kick their way back into the game. Owens is used to this now and told me that “it’s always the same with local derbies like that, it's part and parcel of the game.”
In a recent interview Owens said that when he’s not officiating he does not see view game in the same way as is does when he is the man in the middle. On the flipside of this he told me that it can be difficult to enjoy the game and see the quality in it when you are refereeing it. He said that games like South Africa V New Zealand and Ireland V New Zealand he “knew they were good games but didn’t know quite how good until he watched them back.”
Nigel Owens is often praised for trying to let the game run and encouraging a positive game, he says that “you can’t do anything about the skill level in the game but you can do something about the negativity in the game.”
Throughout this interview Owens plays down his role on the game stressing on many occasions that it is the players that make the game not the referee. Perhaps this is what makes him so good as an official, he knows when to use his power but at the same time he does not over officiate and allows the players to play.
Respect is obviously very important to Nigel Owens and it is something he places in high regard. He says “that it comes with experience and in some ways makes the job easier in some ways it doesn't”. As we would all expect the “players are far easier to referee when they trust you, the downside is that after people have seen me do these great games they expect a good game because I’m refereeing.” This obviously is something the Owens has a lot of experience in and as he says he can’t improve the game he can “only ref what is in front of him.”
The two best games of this year were both refereed by Owens and he thinks that this is why people are now talking about him as the best referee. He says that “Wayne Barnes or Craig Joubert could have refereed them exactly the same”, it is the memory of the games in people’s minds that has helped him to raise his profile in the rugby world once again this year.
I thought in Wales his profile was larger than elsewhere and we recognised how good he is as a ref a few years ago but Owens disagrees. “I don’t think that true people outside Wales said one of best referees for a long time but when you’re refereeing in Wales, like yesterday with the Ospreys. People saying I know he's the best referee in the world but he had a bad game today. Because you’re refereeing their teams and you’re living near, so I've probably been rated at this level far sooner outside Wales than I was inside Wales.” Owens has experience of this too having refereed all over the world with his 50th international coming this Six nations when he takes charge of Ireland V Italy, and having just passed 100 Celtic League games. He laughs as he says “They all call me the best referee until you referee their side.”
- Honored by the WRU for reaching 100 Celtic League Games
One question I did want to pose to Owens was to help settle the old debate that fans always bring up. The ‘big teams like New Zealand get more decisions than the little teams’ issue. Owens asserted that this was a myth. “No Not at all. It is the same as for whatever reason when teams play at home they seem to have a better chance of winning and that’s in the psyche of players and spectators.” So it is the players’ psyche that is wrong when they play the big teams like New Zealand. Perhaps it is a case of believing that they can win. Owens confirmed that “I and I'm sure any of the other top referees don't referee anyone any differently. If they do you'll probably find that their time at the top isn't very long.” This doesn’t just affect referees when they referee the top teams. When Owens referees the RaboPro12 he has to cope with stick from the fans. “People say I'm a Scarlets fan so I give them less because I don't want people to know I'm a Scarlet, but it’s a myth, total rubbish.
Nigel Owens clearly has a great knowledge of the game, and as the conversation drifted towards the hot topic in Welsh rugby he was quick to defend the regions. I offered up the solution of going back to the ‘old’ Welsh clubs to the whistle-blower. It was not something he saw as a viable option in any way. “If we're all honest we're struggling now more than ever. We're struggling in the Heineken cup and have never won it. We’re not competing at that level. If we go back to 8 or 10 clubs the talent will be spread even thinner, if we can't get 4 teams in the final stages of the Heineken cup I don't know how the hell people think we can compete with 8 or 10 clubs.” Owens isn't the first to point out this problem it would weaken the teams as Owens told me “Instead of the 4 regions having quite a few Welsh internationals in each one of them, if you went back to 8 or 10 clubs then they would have half of what they would have now. Then can we compete at the top level? I doubt it very much.”
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