Nigel Owens, MBE (born 18 June 1971) is a Welsh former international rugby unionreferee, who retired in December 2020 after a 17-year career. He previously held the world record for the most test matches refereed[1] and is one of five international referees listed as professional within the Welsh Rugby Union, alongside Craig Evans, Adam Jones, Dan Jones and Ben Whitehouse.[2] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest rugby referees of all time.
Owens is also known as a television personality, as one of the presenters of the S4CWelsh languagechat showsJonathan and Bwrw'r Bar ('Hitting the Bar'). Owens also hosts his own quiz programme Munud i Fynd ('A Minute to Go'). At the 2011 Eisteddfod Genelaethol, he was made a member of the Gorsedd of Bards.
Early life
Owens was born and raised in the village of Mynyddcerrig, near Cross Hands in Carmarthenshire, Wales. He is a fluent Welsh speaker. He was a school technician at Ysgol Gyfun Maes-yr-Yrfa [cy] in Llanelli, the same school attended by Welsh international Dwayne Peel, and was a youth worker with Menter Cwm Gwendraeth. Before that he worked on a farm, for over a year, as a farmhand.[3]
Refereeing career
Owens started refereeing in 1987, after his sports teacher John Beynon suggested he take up refereeing after a school game. His first game was an under-15s match between Carmarthen and Pembrokeshire at the age of 16.
Owens refereed in all six rounds of the 2007–08 Heineken Cup pool stage and was appointed to a quarter-final, semi-final and the final, becoming the third Welsh referee to referee a Heineken Cup final.[8] The following year he refereed nine games, including a quarter-final (the infamous Bloodgate game),[9] semi-final and the final, becoming the third referee to referee a Heineken Cup final more than once and the second to referee two consecutive Heineken Cup finals.[10] On 16 June 2009, as part of the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa, Owens refereed the match between the Lions and the Southern Kings.[11]
In 2013, Owens refereed his 100th Pro12 game and became the most-appointed Welsh referee at international level, overtaking Derek Bevan. During the 2014–15 European Rugby Champions Cup he became the most-appointed referee at European Rugby Champions Cup/Heineken Cup level with 80 appointments, overtaking Alain Rolland. He also officiated at that season's final between Clermont and Toulon, before refereeing the 2015 Pro12 Grand Final.[14] The 2015 Pro12 final was his third time refereeing the Pro12 final, having refereed the 2011 and 2014 Pro12 Grand Final.[15]
Owens was on the 12-man referee panel for the 2015 Rugby World Cup where he was appointed to three pool stage matches, including the France v Ireland clash at the Millennium Stadium, which was the first time Owens refereed an international match at the Welsh home stadium.[16] Owens refereed two more World Cup tests, one of which was the 2015 Rugby World Cup final between New Zealand and Australia.[17] He became the second Welsh referee to referee a World Cup final, after Derek Bevan took charge of the 1991 Rugby World Cup final. Owens won the World Rugby Referee Award at the 2015 World Rugby Awards.[18]
On 3 November 2015, he announced that he intended to keep refereeing international rugby for another four years.[19]
On 15 April 2017, Owens made his 150th Pro12 appearance when he took charge of the Judgement Day clash between Newport Gwent Dragons and Scarlets.[22] On 28 November 2020, Owens refereed his 100th international match in the Autumn Nations Cup game between France and Italy, becoming the first referee to reach the landmark. Two weeks later, he announced his immediate retirement from international duty, saying "Nobody has a divine right to go on forever," but expressed a desire to continue refereeing club matches in the Pro14 and at club level in Wales.[23]
Outside rugby
Owens is one of the presenters of the S4CWelsh languagechat showsJonathan and Bwrw'r Bar ("Hitting the Bar").[24][25] Owens also hosts his own quiz programme Munud i Fynd ("A Minute to Go").[26]
Owens has a cattle farm in his home village, Mynyddcerrig.[27] In January 2021, he was featured on the BBC agricultural programme Countryfile.[28]
His autobiography, Hanner Amser ("Half Time"), was published in Welsh in 2008, then in English in 2009.[29][30] On 24 July 2017, Owens presented a Panorama documentary about men and eating disorders. In it, he opened up about his own experiences with bulimia and how it has affected his life, highlighting his refereeing of the Rugby World Cup as a significant trigger.[31]
On 25 March 2021 Owens was a panellist on BBC's Question Time. When asked about the flying of the Union Jack on public buildings, he said that the flag "should not be mandated on anybody" and suggested "if you force issues on people then you are going to have people rebel against it."[34]
In May 2007, Owens publicly came out as gay in an interview with Wales on Sunday. Reaction was mostly supportive.[36] Owens said that coming out was a difficult decision, and that he had contemplated suicide when he was 26.[37]
It's such a big taboo to be gay in my line of work, I had to think very hard about it because I didn't want to jeopardise my career. Coming out was very difficult and I tried to live with who I really was for years. I knew I was 'different' from my late teens, but I was just living a lie.[37]
Shortly after the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Owens was named 'Gay Sports Personality of the Year' at gay rights group Stonewall's awards ceremony in London.[38] He was a patron of the LGBT Centre of Excellence Wales, until its disbandment in late 2012, but he is still patron of the Wooden Spoon Society rugby charity. In 2013 Owens became a patron of Bullies Out charity in Wales.[39] Owens was subjected to racist and anti-gay abuse when refereeing England and New Zealand in November 2014.[40] This was reported by a fan and resulted in the two spectators responsible being banned from Twickenham for two years.[41] In 2015, Owens was named 'Gay Sports Personality of the Decade' at Stonewall awards ceremony in London.[42] He was named on the 2017 Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures.[43] In a 2019 interview with Wales Online, he admitted he once ordered a date to hide in the toilets at Pizza Hut when Wales international Dwayne Peel and his girlfriend walked in. In Dublin, for the launch of Europe's largest LGBT+ inclusive rugby tournament, Owens was speaking about his own experiences and the difficulty of coming out as gay while working in sport.[44]
His long-term partner is Barrie Jones-Davies, a primary school teacher from Llandovery. In October 2019, Jones-Davies joined Owens in Tokyo to support him during the Rugby World Cup.[50]