Nigel Owens at Sixways
By Silver Warrior
December 21 2010
On Tuesday 26th October the Supporter’s Club were pleased to welcome top international referee Nigel Owens to Sixways for a talk night.
After a slight delay thanks to the M4 being closed we managed to start at 7.40pm. It was also nice to see the Supporter’s club honorary president Craig Gillies managed to attend the evening.
Nigel started off the night talking about his upbringing and how he got into refereeing after been accused of cheating during class and being sent to the headmaster’s office. He spoke of the first big game he reffed which was between Newport Gwent Dragons and Leicester Tigers in the EDF cup and his tales of the scrum half at the time Austin Healey.
He also told us of his first international which he reffed at Twickenham. His father was sat a few seats down from Rob Andrew and Prince Harry. His dad never having been outside Wales was enjoying his first experience of international rugby at Twickenham. After the game Nigel asked his father if he knew who we was sat next to and his response was ‘Yes the old England fly half Rob Andrew’ Nigel then asked if he knew who was sat next to Rob and his father quickly replied ‘Yes his son’. Just goes to show that not everything in the papers makes it to rural West Wales.
Nigel spoke for about an hour of his experiences and also told some excellent jokes. We had a break for refreshments and to draw the raffle. Afterwards Nigel was asked a few questions from the audience. The Supporter’s Club would like to thank those who attended and we hope that you enjoyed the evening – I know I did.
The next supporters evening will in January when we will be having the Meet the Players evening – date to be confirmed. We are also hoping to hold a charity race night so please keep your eyes out for the posters or pop along and see us at the Supporter’s desk in the Lower Sixways before any game.
We are always trying to think of new and original evenings so if you have any ideas please come along and speak to us about any ideas you might have.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:27:19:39:58 by Powick Eastander.
One question and answer I remember was Nigel being asked who he thought were the best refs in the game at the moment.
He said Wayne Barnes, not surprisingly, and also himself! May be more controversial were his other two picks - Alain Roland and Jonathan Kaplan, if I remember correctly (although it was a while ago and my memory may be faulty!).
Whatever you do, do it safely!
Dare we hope? We dare.
Can we hope? We can.
Should we hope? We must.