8 minutes of no nonsense refereeing 

Can we clone him.

Actually you may find Wayne Barnes was as good if not better. But Nigel had the banter.

​@@tariqmalik8073Barnes is the best currently, but Owens is the goat.

@@garethrichards9572 they're both awesome. I thought Barnesy had a stormer in the Wales v Australia game

He'll always be a Legend!

He understood the flow of rugby even when players didn’t.

to be fair footballers arent as bad now as they used to be, 20 years ago you'd get half the team surrounding the ref and shouting in his face, it doesn't happen now, at least at the higher levels.

@@TheIkaraCult agreed, I still remember that Man Utd v Arsenal game in the 00’s! Football still has some way to go, imagine being a 16 year old grass roots referee. I have heard some horror stories, they are literally the life blood of the sport at that level and deserve better protection in my opinion.

in Ireland respect for the ref esp. at local GAA club games is in dangerous decline with a number of shameful physical assaults - the GAA tried to introduce a Black Card / sin bin but it's rarely used, a red card is incredibly rare.. both soccer and GAA should instil respect for the ref - it's good for kids moral / social development as well - learn to control their anger / grievance and see that events can be seen from a different point of view

Sad thing is they used to. For years until they introduced the Premier league and inflation of money and egos came with it

I find it infuriating that football "fans" constantly complain about the quality of officiating when they spend all their time abusing officials! There's a shortage of refs as it is, and with all the abuse going on it's only going to get worse

I saw that too! He's hilarious along with being a fantastic no nonsense ref.

Classic line

...and his riposte to Peter Stringer when Stringer said " I'm not happy ref"...."Well which one are you then?" 😂

He once went into a dressing room and a player made a jokey remark to which he replied "you're not my type" 😁

He contemplated suicide as a young man struggling and became one of the best of us. It's not where you start it's where you finish. Legend

Living legend that man.

He's the absolute best referee in my opinion.

I'm the opposite - like rugby but absolutely hate Owens . just wants to be centre of attention all the while!

​@@williamrussell9601 I think its based on your perception But idk he is just very strict

@@williamrussell9601 hate? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and suspect you mean ‘dislike from a distance’. How can you hate someone you’ve never met?

But the game is dying.

@@Twiceonasunday how so?

@@MrBoggins1234 Wasps? Poor crowds? League dominating in Australia and growing threats to Union in NZ. Videos like this one make me realise why I switched off. I like my sport a bit more about the play and less about the referee. And actually, if we put more pressure on these self important blowhards then maybe there would be improvements in the game. Start. Stop. Start. Stop….zzzzzzzzzzz

@@Twiceonasunday I guess it's just another perspective on another part of a sport I only occasionally watch, am a novice rugby watcher, sorry it's a sad dissatisfied feeling for you, you clearly love the game. I wrote ages ago about how premiership money was ruining the heart of football attracting the wrong sorts. Like Brian Clough ( not a forest fan but live in Notts) I defended referees ( me from the few disrespectful grassroots players and parents) who seemingky got their queues from watching the TV and seeing a select number of the so called pros act like toddlers.

@@MrBoggins1234 It’s a tremendous sport. Professionalism isn’t helping it anymore. I don’t know the answer. I enjoyed playing it at school. Now I don’t understand the rules, especially scrum and breakdowns. Feel the players are too big and there will be a major health implication in the game coming.

Most of the time.

Winston Churchill once said: “Soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen“.

The more physicality the more respect. You see it all the way to the world strongest men, they all respect each other because they all know the hard work it took to get there.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the Respect is for the points than can be won or lost.....

the sport can't function if the refs isn't respected.

In my country, _American Football_ is not a big deal. The way we were taught it, you don't speak to the ref, period. If he flags you, he flags you. If you need to complain, talk to your team captain. I've always held that this would be a healthy thing for soccer in particular: Team captain being the only one *allowed* to talk to the ref, with anyone else being flat-out carded.

@@DevSolar In rugby it's similar, if you feel like the ref is missing something the other team is doing you talk to your captain who talks to the ref, you never ever say any complaints directly to him or you'll get carded and shouting any sort of complaint in open play will get a penalty against you. He will address you directly if he's warning you though and will call you and your captain over to speak to him, your captain generally being expected to speak on your behalf, with you usually only saying things like "ok Sir" or "my mistake Sir".

I think it's useful for people from countries where football isn't a big deal to understand that young boys when learning to play are taught to call the ref a "bloody w4nker" and scream "oi reffff" and "oi lino" or the courteous phrase "you blind??" when they disagree. The beautiful game.

​@@DevSolarWhat's "soccer"?

​@@crizzl380 The term used in the English language when you want to unambiguously refer to that particular sport to an international audience when it is not clear from the context. Alternatively, that sport where the athletes behave like street toughs, unless they've been touched (or appear to have been touched) in some way, which is when they behave like crybabies. SInce I've already been referring to American Football in the comment section of a Rugby video, I felt some additional unambiguousness would be required. Get over it.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain

@@CubeInspector Well GodDAYUM mister, I sure do apologize. You do realize God is his title, not his name? And that most people in the world don't share your religious beliefs, right?

​@CubeInspector which god?

Until he came out of 'retirement' to favour Villareal and retired again shortly after.

Just one look from the bulging eyes was enough to cow the players into submission.

@@thomaswalsh4924 theres always a bluenose still going on about Collina. Got beat in both legs, but still the ref's fault!

Don't forget Englands Jack Taylor tho'

Bent as F. Screwed Everton over against Villarreal.

The refs don't say the rule is they say the law is. That's how it is done thank you,here's your punishment now let's get on with the game

This part always gets me 😂

Yeah! And the fact Barnes was stationary, yet made the *other* guy fall down.

my favorite was "the soccer-field is 500 yard that way!"

The referee isn't in the slightest bit scary, but the degree of his authority most certainly is. The phrase "er, Christopher" has become a well-used favourite in my family, along with "language, Timothy".

He actually said..."sorry, sir."

Do you know what football fans always say about rugby?

​@@blushinglampshade No not really But not many football fans even know what rugby is Because majority of Europe and South America that are crazy over football doesn't know rugby

@@dude9318 Exactly. They say nothing!

@@blushinglampshade ey i was right Lol

And this from a League fan in AU; League (well, in the NRL at least)is a thug's/prima-donna's game played by thugs/prima-donnas (especially the M_nly Sea Eagles, the smarmiest & dirtiest pack of glass-jawed ar--holes out there, always have been - just ask Western Suburbs).

Totally agree. Brilliant ref. From England fan.

I love it. If you're acting like a misbehaving child, then you should be disciplined like a child. Wish we had refs like him in football, and the FA and players respected the refs/rules.

@@Gerbera726 indeed

In rugby league, refs can place an incident on report, so that it can be properly investigated. This avoids the problem of changing referees' decisions or sanctions retroactively.

​@@hb1338lol a report in FIFA is as much use as toilet paper😂

While i agree, the problem with Fifa is way deeper rooted i think. I try to avoid watching football as i get annoyed by the bad habits players and referees show there. But from the little i have watched in recent years it is the only sports where the video check (or however it is called) gets messed up in ways where they would lynchmob the video ref in other sports. The video checks work in Rubgy, American football, Icehockey, basketball i think... just in Football they aren't able to use it properly and decide things wrongly even though the whole stadium and viewers at home looking at the same picture can see that the decision is wrong. (not always of course, but with the little i watch it is unlikely that i only get to see the failures and the rest of the time i don't watch to do great.) Sometimes i get the feeling that they want to cheat from the topend of the organization.

@@nirfz, interesting perspective. I don't watch enough sports to judge whether there are more video refereeing errors in football than other sports. What seems to me to complicate the matter is that football rules aren't precise enough for video assistance, or there is no leeway for technical inaccuracies. Two examples: in tennis, hawkeye is god. If it shows a ball to be on the line by a tiny sliver, it's considered to be in even if it's within the technical margin of error. In cricket, on the other hand, “umpire's call" is used for tight situations where the technology does not allow for a 100% accurate decision. In the case of Leg Before Wicket, for instance, the margin of error is half a ball's width. If a decision is that tight, the decision of the onfield ref remains standing. Football needs to make its rules more precise along these lines. Otherwise there will forever be discussions whether an offside call should be overturned because of someone's toe.

@@father_flair I would think the rules are precise enough in football, but some rules are bad. ->What counts is the decision of the main ref. No matter what the video showed. This is a rule that's caused problems even before the video ref became a thing: Years ago Bayerns Munich scored a goal in a german league match even though the ball was not inside the goal but hit the outside sidenet. Even after being told and shown by the present TV people on the video wall, he kept the score as it was. As far as i remember this had 0 consequences for the ref.

I mean, you cheat until the ref calls you on it. Crooked feeds, off feet in the ruck.... whatever you can get away with. When he calls you on it, take your lesson like a good player and adjust your game.

Agree to a point. The issue in rugby for me is the almost total immunity that refs get. I stopped taking my son to rugby because every game ended up in a ref making some strange call and then the entire group of players and spectators just shrugging it off. Having to explain that if you're the ref you call the shots, even when you're wrong, flows against everything I try to teach him about being honest and honourable. The reffing standard is really high in rugby but the idea that it's perfect is so far from the truth. How many high level games has Wayne Barnes ruined yet no one can be critical of him. There is a lot to learn in rugby but it not from the players, the refs need to be more accountable when they get it wrong.

@@robhughes645 I agree with you on the accountability point. The best referees can and do admit they got things wrong and do apologise. When refereeing children it is a little harder - not because referees aren’t accountable but because, especially with the youngest age groups, the referees are coaching as well as refereeing. They will also have talked to the opposition coach and will almost certainly not be strictly enforcing the rules. I used to explain that to the children and the parents before each match - most understood that we were interested in developing the children and enabling them to enjoy the game.

​ @ericnielsen-wf9wh: That's the exact attitude that ruined football and most other team sports for me. I hate that from the bottom of my heart. In engineering school (age 14-19) we played football in PE all the time and we had some classmates who played in actual clubs for years. (My parents would not have been able to afford that) And some of them had the attitude you mentioned and tried that during our PE lessons with their classmates. Like kicking you into the backside or the side of your knee when the ref/teacher doesn't look, or into the heel, nonchalently punching you into the nuts when the ref looks the other way, camouflaging it as just swinging the hands when starting to run, stepping on your toes when you want to move... I told the one who did that to me, that if he ever does that again and plays unfair, that he will loose his teeth and end up in hospital. (I was never in a fight, and he was aware of that, but he knew that i absolutely meant it the way i said it) And i wasn't wispering so the other club players heard it too. He and the other club players played fair for the rest of the time we played in school after that. (They will probably still have that bad attitude playing for their clubs as they got taught it by their coaches, but at least in school they knew to behave properly) I don't want that conversation to be a thing or to need to be a thing in sports that claim to teach children and people about fairness and sportsmanship.

Imagine if soccer refs were shown the same level of respect that rugby refs get?

@@davet6079 I might watch soccer in that case. The soccer authorities have obviously decided that histrionics and abusing referees is simply part of the game and there is no sanction for bringing the game into disrepute.

Football

@@davet6079 imagine if rugby refs did soccer matches. For a good few games, they would end up as 5-a-side

​@@theofarmmanager267 This might be the best idea I've heard in a while.

And, even better, if the DO speak to him like that again, it's a penalty or a card.

And more importantly, players can be publicly held accountable for their often despicable behaviour towards the ref

@@r0manovic Yes!! I didn't even think of that!

They do talk like this, you just don't hear it because they don't have mics

@@qxqp Must all be talk because you dont see much follow through, otherwise players wouldnt behave the way they do

They're not like this because the league doesn't want them to be like this. And the league doesn't want it because $$$

Damn straight. Nonu is a grub

only once and then they would play like men instead of spoilt tossers and the games would be twice as good

He was actually calling his opposite number on the Leicester side a cheat for cynical work in the scrum, however Wayne took it that it was himself being called a cheat.

​@CDB8939 the replay shows he was looking at the ref when he said it. If he meant it for the other player, get in his grill and say what you want to say away from the ref

And it's full of supporters with players earning significantly more without developing early onset dementia as a result of piss poor referees allowing repeated cheapshots to the head go unpunished

It's Jerome Garces. He's now retired and work with the national team

And would make watching the game a lot more enjoyable.

Nailed it!