Legendary referee Nigel Owens hits out at South Africa's Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus after Springbok chief's latest referee rant on Twitter.
France stretched their winning streak to 12 consecutive matches on Saturday evening when they edged the Springboks 30-26 in a game where both teams lost players with red cards.
Following the game, Erasmus has been tweeting a number of incidents during the game, which are often accompanied by sarcastic comments.
“I saw these come up and I was thinking ‘is this his genuine profile? Is he doing this?’” said Owens, who was appearing on the Telegraph Rugby Podcast.
“To me, we don’t need that in the game and I’d have thought he’d have learned his lesson by now, if it is him doing this. There’s a procedure in place.
"If you’re not happy about decisions, or you have questions about decisions – as every coach would have – referees can’t get everything right, there is a process to go through.
“You send your timeline to the referee manager, which would be Joël Jutge at World Rugby, and they would look at that with the referee.
"Then they would reply to the coach and say: ‘Yeah, this could have been penalised’ or ‘the referee is correct here’. Or, like a lot of things in rugby, it’s: ‘This is a grey one. This is what the referee feels and it’s his interpretation of it [but] it could well have gone the other way’. That’s the nature of the game.
“Once you start putting things out there on social media questioning decisions, that’s not what this game is about, I don’t think. I don’t think this it’s right and I don’t like it.
"Go through the proper channels, and as long as everyone is open and honest and transparent… that is the way forward, not [to do it] on social media.”
Nigel Owens facts:
- Owens started refereeing in 1987, after his sports teacher John Beynon suggested he take up refereeing after a school game
- Scarlets and Wales U20 centre Ioan Nicholas is the cousin of the top referee
- The Welshman supports National League side Wrexham
- He currently holds the world record for the most test matches refereed
- n May 2007, Owens publicly came out as gay in an interview with
He’s actually blocked me” – Three rugby players Nigel Owens simply cannot stand
Popular referee Nigel Owens has built his reputation on being one of the nicest guys in rugby who seems to get on with almost everyone.
However, that's not the case with these three players with the famous whistleblower getting into high-profile spats with them down the years.
#1. Israel Folau
Owens, who came out as gay in 2007, spoke to the BBC about Israel Folau being sacked for his homophobic views, saying: "It is an important message from the Australian Rugby Union, who I think have dealt with it properly in the only way that they could.
"It is a clear message going out to people that there are consequences for expressing those beliefs, which are very, very hurtful and not acceptable in today’s society.
"Rugby is a sport inclusive for all, which means I can be a part of the sport. When you’re in that sport you must respect other people within that sport.’
He added: ‘I cannot choose my sexuality; I can choose what religion I follow, I can choose what kind of person I am — I’m a good person — what sport I play. There are many, many things I can choose in life but my sexuality is not one of them, that’s what I’d like them to understand"
#2. Austin Healey
When discussing the WORST players to referee, Owens said: "“Definitely Austin Healey. I only caught him towards the end of his career, thankfully.
"A wonderfully talented player and a very good pundit now, but he always had plenty say and quickly assumed I didn’t like him. He’s actually blocked me on Twitter, but I don’t think I’m the only one.”
Healey later went onto slam Owens for being a celebrity referee in an article for The Telegraph.
In his own column, Owens responded by saying: "I would have thought doing Pontyberem versus Tumble under nines on a Sunday morning, the Bridgend Festival and various community games which I try to say yes to, is a million miles away from being a so-called ‘celebrity referee’."
#3. Luke FItzgerald
In 2017, Owens, one of the most respected refs in the game, told Munster lock Billy Holland: ‘Advantage is over there lads. It’s poor play by you there on the pass. Under no pressure there’ after he lost the ball for his team.’
Holland fired back, saying ‘Cheers coach’, all of which was picked up on the ref’s mic.
After the game, former Irish winger Luke Fitzgerald told independent.ie there was ‘no place for it in the game’.
Owens has since taken to Twitter to explain himself, tweeting: ‘The game is about the players not the ref. I didn’t say a witty thing or a put down. I just explained why advantage was over. Nothing more.’
But Fitzgerald, who has retired from rugby due to injury, didn’t leave it there and there was a bit of a back and forth between the two after Ross Campbell tweeted Fitzgerald the ref’s response.
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