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Too often the Rugby Championship has been plagued with annoying, free-flowing football.
Thankfully, Nigel Owens was able to keep such abominations under wraps with outstanding use of the whistle in the Springboks versus Wallabies match.
The two southern hemisphere sides looked to hold the ball in hand and play wide, running rugby.
It was imperative that Owens didn’t allow the game to gain too much momentum, and a steady stream of penalties and early blows of the whistle allowed the game to stagnate into a much more appealing form of rugby.
There were occasions where both sides showed so much control, that the phase play was nauseating. In order to relieve the pressure and obvious boredom, Owens managed to look hard into the ruck, and often find a cynical foul which would be overlooked by many an official.
“It’s important to look hard for those penalties,” he stated during his press conference, “they’re often not that obvious, so you need to get right into the ruck, look around, and pull up play before that phase is allowed to just soldier on.”
It wasn’t just his classical style of penalising either, Owens took every opportunity to discuss his decisions, and everything short of recent house prices in the wake of the sub-prime collapse, with the players.
He exquisitely controlled the tempo of the game, and didn’t let it get to any upsetting speed. Television viewers also experienced the grace of listening to the running commentary from the top-tier official, as he delivered his explanations with gusto.
Yet his incredible performance did take its toll. The champion ref needed to change his whistle an incredible six times, as his constant exhales wore out the metal finish.
“It was tough out there, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Once or twice it was so hard chasing a break that I had to penalise a ruck infringement just so I could get my breath back. I was so out of puff I almost couldn’t blow the whistle!”
An IRB Spokesperson praised the efforts of Nigel, stating that too often it’s the players that get all the recognition, and it was fantastic for the game to have a ref as the centre of attention.
“At the end of the day, the folks pay to see me blow my whistle, not those boys run around the pitch,” said the incredible Welshman.
With the Ruby World Cup a mere 12 months away, it was good to see the referee in fine form. With any luck, he will carry his confidence into the tournament, and equally rousing performances with the whistle will ensue on the game’s biggest stage.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.