Tom Foley has revealed that he and his young family have been subjected to death threats following his role in the Rugby World Cup Final.
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Serving as the television match official during the game between South Africa and New Zealand last month, Foley disclosed that World Rugby has documented over 2,000 direct threats against match officials in the recent weeks.
Wayne Barnes, who refereed the final, also received horrific threats following the aftermath of the match.
The referee, hailing from Somerset, expressed the unfairness of having to notify his children’s school about potential threats.
“You can’t hide behind this faceless façade. It’s cowardice. It’s complete cowardice,” said Foley.
“They wouldn’t say it to you in the street. So why do they feel that they can say it online?”
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Quiz! Can you name the 20 most-capped men’s England players?
Several of these individuals have participated, or are presently participating, in the contemporary era of rugby.
Can you identify how many of the top 20 most-capped England rugby players you can name?
We’ve supplied the total number of caps and their respective playing positions for each player. Your task is simply to complete their surnames.
You have a 5-minute window to attempt to guess all 20 players.
“Beyond a joke” – Nigel Owens calls for major changes to rugby
Popular former referee Nigel Owens has called for major changes to way games are officiated following what was a divisive Rugby World Cup.
The Welshman, who was writing in his column for Wales Online, believes there are a number of areas that need addressing after taking time to think about what went down in France.
Dump the bunker:
Owens wrote: “During the Rugby World Cup, I made no secret of my thoughts on the new TMO bunker. While it certainly showed how it can help to speed up games, it hardly reduced controversies or improved decision-making during the tournament and, in my opinion, ended up being used too much when the decisions should have been made by the on-field referees.
“At the moment, it feels like the TMO is refereeing matches and that is not a road that rugby should be going down. While technology has its place in the game, how it is used currently needs to change.”
Scrap the drop-out:
Owens wrote: “It was hoped that they would improve player safety by reducing the number of pick-and-gos and encourage teams to spread the ball along the back line rather than bulldoze their way over to score.
But if you look at games now, teams are still picking and going and they’re still bulldozing their way over the line. If anything, it rewards negative play as the defender can just chuck themselves under the ball and hold it up.”