Nigel Owens, was born on 18 June 1971 and is a Welsh former international rugby union referee, who retired in December 2020 after a 17-year career.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,662 |
41 Facts About Nigel Owens
2.
Nigel Owens currently holds the world record for the most test matches refereed and is one of five international referees listed as professional within the Welsh Rugby Union, alongside Craig Evans, Adam Jones, Dan Jones, and Ben Whitehouse.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,663 |
3.
Nigel Owens was born and raised in the village of Mynyddcerrig, near Cross Hands in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,664 |
4.
Nigel Owens was a school technician at Ysgol Gyfun Maes-yr-Yrfa in Llanelli, the same school attended by Welsh international Dwayne Peel, and was a youth worker with Menter Cwm Gwendraeth.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,665 |
5.
Nigel Owens started refereeing in 1987, after his sports teacher John Beynon suggested he take up refereeing after a school game.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,666 |
6.
Nigel Owens's first game was an under-15s match between Carmarthen and Pembrokeshire at the age of 16.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,667 |
7.
In October 2001, Nigel Owens was one of the first three Welsh Rugby Union professional referees.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,668 |
8.
Nigel Owens made his debut in Europe's Heineken Cup, refereeing Calvisano and Perpignan, on 12 January 2002.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,669 |
9.
Nigel Owens made his Celtic League debut on 30 August 2002, refereeing Border Reivers and Connacht.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,670 |
10.
Nigel Owens was a regular referee on the International Rugby Board World Sevens Series circuit between 2002 and 2005.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,671 |
13.
Nigel Owens was the only Welsh referee during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where he refereed three pool-stage matches.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,674 |
14.
Nigel Owens later officiated at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which included an appointment to a quarter-final match, New Zealand v Argentina.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,675 |
15.
Nigel Owens was appointed to the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final as one of the assistant referees.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,676 |
16.
Nigel Owens refereed his third Heineken Cup final at the 2012 Heineken Cup Final between Leinster and Ulster.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,677 |
17.
In 2013, Nigel Owens refereed his 100th Pro12 game and became the most-appointed Welsh referee at international level, overtaking Derek Bevan.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,678 |
18.
Nigel Owens officiated at that season's final between Clermont and Toulon, before refereeing the 2015 Pro12 Grand Final.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,679 |
19.
Nigel Owens was on the 12-man referee panel for the 2015 Rugby World Cup where he was appointed to three pool stage matches, including the France v Ireland clash at the Millennium Stadium, which was the first time Nigel Owens refereed an international match at the Welsh home stadium.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,680 |
20.
Nigel Owens refereed two more World Cup tests, one of which was the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final between New Zealand and Australia.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,681 |
21.
Nigel Owens became the second Welsh referee to referee a World Cup Final, after Derek Bevan took charge of the 1991 Rugby World Cup Final.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,682 |
22.
Nigel Owens won the World Rugby Referee Award at the 2015 World Rugby Awards.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,683 |
23.
On 5 March 2016, Nigel Owens launched the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifying process, refereeing the first qualification match, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines v Jamaica in Arnos Vale.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,684 |
24.
Later that year, Nigel Owens became the most-capped rugby referee when he took charge of the Fiji-Tonga clash in Suva, overtaking Jonathan Kaplan's record of 70 tests.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,685 |
25.
On 15 April 2017, Nigel Owens made his 150th Pro12 appearance when he took charge of the Judgement Day clash between Newport Gwent Dragons and Scarlets.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,686 |
27.
Nigel Owens is known as a television personality, as one of the presenters of the S4C Welsh language chat shows Jonathan and Bwrw'r Bar.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,688 |
28.
Nigel Owens has a cattle farm in his home village, Mynyddcerrig.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,689 |
29.
On 24 July 2017, Nigel Owens presented a Panorama documentary about men and eating disorders.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,690 |
31.
In February 2022, Nigel Owens was named as a commentator for S4C in the 2022 Six Nations Championship.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,692 |
32.
Nigel Owens appears in the mid-morning BBC Radio 5 Live programme by Scott Mills and Chris Stark.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,693 |
33.
In May 2007, Nigel Owens publicly came out as gay in an interview with Wales on Sunday.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,694 |
34.
Nigel Owens said that coming out was a difficult decision, and that he had contemplated suicide when he was 26.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,695 |
35.
Shortly after the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Nigel Owens was named 'Gay Sports Personality of the Year' at gay rights group Stonewall's awards ceremony in London.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,696 |
36.
Nigel Owens was a patron of the LGBT Centre of Excellence Wales, until its disbandment in late 2012, but he is still patron of the Wooden Spoon Society rugby charity.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,697 |
37.
Nigel Owens was subjected to racist and anti-gay abuse when refereeing England and New Zealand in November 2014.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,698 |
38.
In 2015, Nigel Owens was named 'Gay Sports Personality of the Decade' at Stonewall awards ceremony in London.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,699 |
39.
Nigel Owens was named on the 2017 Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,700 |
40.
In Dublin, for the launch of Europe's largest LGBT+ inclusive rugby tournament, Nigel Owens was speaking about his own experiences and the difficulty of coming out as gay while working in sport.
| FactSnippet No. 2,413,701 |