An Evening with Nigel Owens
Nigel Owens
By Lindsay Clayton
April 8 2013
After the success of the last time Nigel Owens came to speak to WRSC it was an easy decision to book him again. This proved to be an excellent choice of event as there were over 150 tickets sold well before the night.
Nigel spoke about how he came to be a ref by getting sent out of class and being co-opted by the school's rugby coach to ref a game of younger pupils. He loved it and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Nigel described how proud and excited he was when he got his first 6 Nations game in charge which was at Twickenham. His father, who had never left Wales, was given a seat in the Royal box just a few seats from Price Harry who was escorted by Rob Andrew. When asked after the game if he knew who it was a couple of seats up, Nigel's Dad replied "Oh yes it was that former English Stand Off, Rob Andrew and his son" !!
It was obvious from the way that Nigel spoke about rugby and his role in it that he feels a great responsibility to the game and the players. The travelling gets a bit much sometimes, but he still has to pinch himself when he is stood ready to start an International match in one of the foremost rugby grounds around the World. .
After the break and the raffle there was a Q & A session and one of the most interesting questions was what laws changes did Nigel think there needs to be to sort out the current scrummaging issues. He doesn't think that the laws are the fundamental issue as in the lower echelons of rugby there isn't an issue. Nigel regularly refs at colt, school and local club level and his contention is that the solution to scrum problems lies within the purview of coaches and players at the top level who are so busy trying to get an edge at the set piece that they push the laws to breaking point.
There was much much more to the evening than this brief report so if you want to know more of what happens at the WRSC "Meet the Ref" nights, book yourself in to the next one. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Photos with the kind permission of Tony Banks
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:04:24:16:04:59 by Powick Eastander.
PE has been very generous with the photo credits, but I can only claim to have provided images 1, 2 and 4, the others having been provided by other photographer(s).
I'm still having trouble getting my camera insurance company to take on the risk of me taking a picture of Darren without breaking the lens!
Deja vu? I've seen it all before