'Has to be done': The refereeing change Nigel Owens wants to see

Centurion Test referee Nigel Owens has elaborated on his midweek social media post where he claimed he was glad he was retired. The ex-Welsh official had taken umbrage over the disciplinary hearing decision to rescind the red card brandished last weekend to Bristol’s Josh Caulfield for an Invested Champions Cup rucking incident against Connacht’s Finlay Bealham.

Commenting on the decision reached by the committee consisting of Paul Thomas (Wales, chair), Marcello D’Orey (Portugal) and Stefan Terblanche (South Africa), Owens wrote: “How can they say this is foul play but not a red card?

“If it’s not foul play and complete accident then play on. If it’s reckless and foul play then it has to be RC. For what it’s worth, it’s a RC for me as it’s not a natural action of rucking and reckless. Glad I retired.”

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Owens has now revisited his remarks, using his weekly weekend walesonline.co.uk column to double down on his thoughts regarding the overturned Caulfield red card.

He also criticised the yellow card given to Exeter’s Dafydd Jenkins in his team’s loss at Bayonne, stating: “Honestly, I’m not sure what he could have done any different… I just can’t see how this one reaches the foul play threshold, let alone a yellow card.”

Given his level of puzzlement in trying to understand these two major talking points from last weekend and his general confusion with officiating over the last while, Owens has now called on the authorities to streamline its process so that more consistent decisions can be reached.

“You have got to look at the whole process, not just refereeing sanctions, which are mostly correct, but the judiciary and citing process that follows,” he claimed in his online column. “At the moment, it’s spoiling the game because people just don’t know what decisions are going to be given.

“The issue I believe is that there are simply too many people involved in these decisions… You have the referees, assistant referees, TMO, referee coach, referee performance reviewer and referee manager, while you have several other people involved in the judiciary process too.

“For me, particularly at the professional end of the game, it all needs to be streamlined. Of course, it shouldn’t be the case that there becomes a dictatorship making these decisions, but that streamlining needs to happen sooner rather than later for consistency reasons.

“More people involved means more inconsistency – and it’s that inconsistency that’s spoiling our game. Something has to be done.”

• Click here to read the entire Nigel Owens walesonline.co.uk column