Nigel Owens: The Final Whistle

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The chair of Welsh Water was also part of the conversation and turned to me to say, ‘Well, there you are Nigel. You’ve had it from the very top now. Sort it out'!

The hugely popular man in the middle brought pride to Welsh rugby by breaking a plethora of records in the world game, including becoming the first referee to officiate 100 Test matches, most Six Nations games and most European Cup finals. I’d not refereed Treviso for a few years and pretty early on I noticed their scrum-half moaning about my decisions, gesturing, waving his arms in the air. The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Hang on a minute, I don’t think I’ve refereed this guy before’. If I had, I felt he’d have known better than to be acting like this.

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My coach and TMO Derek Bevan gave me some sound advice. ‘You decide when you want to finish Nigel and don’t let anyone else force you into it. You’ll know when the time is right,’ were his words of wisdom. My village of Mynyddcerrig [in Carmarthenshire, west Wales] had bunting and flags out, everyone in the working men's club that week enjoying themselves and people coming from everywhere. This is a tale of triumph over adversity, of hope over despair. The publishers say, 'It makes for a truly compelling read as the rugby book of the year.' So we can’t say that any player that puts his hand on the ground is committing an offence because it doesn’t say that in the law. I looked up at him perplexed and responded, ‘What do you mean viral? Why, what did I say?’ I genuinely didn’t know what he was on about, certainly not the significance of it, until I looked at my phone - and whoosh. Messages everywhere.

Fortunately there was a positive response. My comments even merited a mention on Match of the Day as the pundits discussed the differing respect for referees in the two sports, while leading football columnists on the top national newspapers wrote articles to say they wished more of this could happen in their sport and players would listen to officials more instead of moaning." Hey, the football stadium's that way And if so, it would be a penalty if he feels well; he just touched the ground around the ball, and it’s not supporting his body weight, then we’d have a play on.”

There were people driving down from Merthyr, from Pontypool, up from Cardigan, some down from Aberystwyth. People were driving down to see the village I was born in because it was on the news that week.

Owens was the official to spot the error, and he feared a great occasion might be cast in shadow. Amid the disappointment of the match situation, Jean de Villiers showed his colours. We smiled. I was taken into this large banquet room where I started chatting to my fellow guests before the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh entered. I was introduced to Prince Philip first. ‘Sir, this is Nigel Owens who refereed the 2015 World Cup final.’What a great player, but what a great captain and what a great man, and the way he came up and handled that situation and said 'look, mistakes happen, let's just get on with it'. I thought to myself, that is what a true, great rugby player is. A genuine person, and a great leader as well. It was a truly wonderful gesture, touching and indeed typical of the support the WRU had given me down the years,” writes Owens. My contract was due to run out on 1 June 2016, so not long after the end of the tournament,” Owens writes in the autobiography.