My name is Nigel Owens and I’m a professional rugby referee.
I referee a game of rugby,
as simple as that. I’ve been referring 28 years, long time. I started when I was 16
years of age quite simply because I was pretty useless at playing.
It’s not as simple and
straightforward as just referring 80 minutes of rugby a week. I wish it was but it’s not.
Yeah training is quite hard. You get fitness tested three times a year and if you’re
not fit, you won’t pass it. And if you don’t pass it, you don’t referee international
matches, it’s as simple as that really. I also do some other work as well like some
development work with some of the younger referees and a bit of coaching with some of
the academy referees as well.
Without a shadow of doubt, my biggest achievement to date would be the world cup final. There’s
no doubt about that because that is the pinnacle of anybody involved in rugby’s career.
I guess the only way is down now, I suppose, once you’ve done the World Cup Final.
I’ve reached the pinnacle but the challenge now is to keep that standard for the next four
years and referee every game as if it is a World Cup Final.
You know, at the end of the day, I’ve got to go out there and referee. But I am also
quite aware now that people do now watch games waiting to hear if there’s going to be a
one liner or if something’s going to be said that’s going to be funny or going to be a YouTube sensation.
It’s in my character, I guess, the humour, you know, I was brought
up in humour in West Wales in the communities here. I was on stage at 14 years of age doing
stand up and telling jokes, you know. So when I’m on that field now and something happens,
I just say it as it is. I don’t go out on that field now to think right, people are
going to want me to say something funny today because my job is to referee. I’ll referee the game first.
Yeah after refereeing the World Cup Final, Australia/New Zealand in Twickenham then the
following week I’m referring Gowerton against Crymych down in Gowerton in Division One West.
And it was great because that’s where I started, you know. I wouldn’t have been
refereeing that World Cup Final if it wasn’t for the community game where I’ve learned
my trade over the years where people in the community have given their time up to help
you, give you advice, for nothing, you know, and helping you achieve those goals. So it’s
the least you can do is to put something back in.
I’ve been to many countries all over the world and I don’t get the sense of closeness
and community and people pulling together and helping together in other countries as
they do in Wales.
When you grow up in Wales, rugby is a huge part of your upbringing, of
your culture, your communities and the rugby clubs are a big part of the community, you
know, it’s the heart of the community, and that’s why I think grassroots rugby community,
these are the most important parts of the game because that’s what pulls everybody together.
When you have somebody works down the mine or works on the bins, playing rugby with a
policeman, a teacher, a lawyer, you know, it brings classes together and that brings
communities together, it brings people together. And that’s why I think rugby is the national
sport of Wales in my view and that’s why I think rugby union is not only the greatest
team sport in the world on the field, but without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest
team sport in the world off the field because it doesn’t matter who you are, what country
you are from, what the colour of your skin is, what your religious beliefs or your sexual
orientation is, none of that matters one bit in rugby. In rugby you are part of a team.
It’s a sport for all.
I don’t think in Wales we appreciate how lucky we are to still have a decent percentage
of the population speaking Welsh as a language. I don’t think I am and I certainly am not
more Welsh than anybody else in this country who is Welsh and doesn’t speak Welsh, but
I think keeping our languages is a vital and important part, I think, and that’s one thing I’m very proud of.
I don’t speak Welsh on the field with anyone else because I think I’m going to speak
Welsh now because I want people to know I speak Welsh. I speak Welsh because it’s
my first language and it’s natural for me to do so. And plus as well I think it’s
important that if you have the ability to speak Welsh that you use your language. It’s
not wrong it’s right that you speak your language and speak your first language. And
I’m very proud of my language and I’m going to continue to speak it at every opportunity that I get.
You see a lot of things in life will happen by chance and when you get those chances,
you get them when you least expect them, you grasp those chances and that’s exactly where
refereeing started for me. It started by pure chance and I gave it my best then over the
coming years and the rest is history, I guess, they say.
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