The most famous referee in the world of rugby, Welshman Nigel Owens, 49, ended his international career this Friday after 17 years and 100 matches refereed at the highest level.
Owens, who notably led the 2015 World Cup final won by New Zealand against Australia, will have refereed his last international match at the Stade de France on November 28, for the Fall Nations Cup meeting. between France and Italy (36-5).
His international career began with a Portugal-Georgia in February 2003 in Lisbon.
“One hundred games is a good time to go,” said Nigel Owens.
The Welshman, who has participated in 4 World Cups (2007, 2011, 2015, 2019) has an exceptional record: 19 World Cup matches, 21 of the Six Nations Tournament, 24 Blues matches including a test against the South Africans in November 2018 which had angered coach Jacques Brunel.
The referee having allowed, according to him, the Springboks to win (29-26) at the Stade de France by not penalizing them on the last scrum five meters from their goal line.
A rare coming out in rugby
Nigel Owens is the first high profile referee to publicly discuss his homosexuality.
“Refereeing a World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand, in front of 85,000 people at the stadium and millions of viewers, who examine your every decision, it puts a lot of pressure on you.
But all that was nothing compared to accepting myself as I am, ”he confided in an interview broadcast on the BBC in February 2017.
Suicide attempts, bulimia, addiction to steroids… After coming out, the one who is considered one of the best referees in the world had a lot of difficulties to cope with.
"I didn't want to be gay, I asked my doctor to chemically castrate me," he said.
If you are not happy with who you are, you will not be able to be good at what you do.
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His most famous sentence on a field, "This is not soccer" ("we are not in football here"), released in January 2012 against a player from Treviso, Totias Botes, because the latter challenged his decisions too much, kicked off the popularity of Nigel Owens.
T-shirts or mugs with the effigy of this cult replica were sold and the referee promoted it on Twitter, his favorite playground.
Very popular in Wales for his humor and his career, Nigel Owens took part in a TV show hosted by ex-international Jonathan Davies, and in game shows.
