Popular Welsh referee Nigel Owens thinks it is time for players to stop the histrionics and dissent that is creeping into the game.
He used the England captains constant backchat during England’s Six Nations win against Italy as the latest example of the dirty habit that is cereeping into the game.
“huge respect for Owen Farrell both as a player and a person”, that “there was too much chat from him to the referee. That must stop,” wrote Owens. in his column for the Mail Online
“He never did that with me. Every time I referee, I tell the players that there is a time and a place for a conversation,” Owens wrote for the Daily Mail.
“If they want to discuss something, they have to do it in the right manner. That is one of the game’s values.
“It is up to the referees to keep strong and stay on top of things like that. We don’t want to see it creeping in.”
How Owens started refereeing:
Playing rugby at school, his team hadn’t won a game all year, and needed to kick a conversion for victory. It was Nigel’s moment of glory. But it didn’t go to plan. The ball “went closer to the corner flag than it did to the uprights. I was a laughing stock in the school.” His coach suggested, rather forcefully, that it might make more sense for him to oversee the games rather than play in them.
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AWESOME! Nigel Owens ranks his FIVE best players of all-time
Popular Welsh referee flanker Nigel Owens recently picked his all-time dream team, singling these five out for specific praise.
5. Dan Carter (New Zealand)
OWENS SAID: “There are lots of outside-halves who have been great, but not one who has done it over so many years like Carter. Before the 2015 World Cup, some people said he was past his best and wouldn’t make the New Zealand squad for the tournament. But for Carter to come back from injury and play as well as he did then is a sign of a special player.”
