‘I always wear lucky Batman pants – I just need to make them last to the World Cup’
Nigel Owens has Six Nations history in his sights tomorrow, but is in no mood to hang up his whistle, he tells Gavin Mairs
In the moments before Nigel Owens becomes the most capped referee in the history of the Six Nations tomorrow, he will undertake the same pre-match routine as he did 11 years ago on his debut at Twickenham – including a ‘lucky’ pair of boxer shorts and singing the Welsh version of the hymn How Great Thou Art.
Owens, who will surpass the previous record of 17 Six Nations matches held by Alain Rolland and Jonathan Kaplan at the Stade de France, where France face Ireland, is not overly superstitious but some rituals are sacrosanct. Owens insists on wearing particular underwear for each Test match, all purchased for him by his cousins, one of whom, Ioan Nicholas, plays for the Scarlets and has represented Wales Under-20s, as a Christmas present.
“They buy me boxers every year,” Owens laughs. “It’s Batman now but before that I had Star Wars ones for about a year and a half and I needed them to last another seven months to get to the World Cup. I managed to get them to the final and there is a big hole in them now. I still have them in the drawer at home but they have been retired. Last Christmas was Batman and this year I have novelty butler ones. I haven’t worn them yet, I have to wait until I retire the Batman ones.”
The second pre-match ritual is more spiritual. Owens has a playlist of music that he listens to in the minutes when he is alone in his changing room before kick-off. He says the playlist has changed over the years but the final song has remained the same.
“It is Mor Fawr Wyt Ti [the
Welsh version of How Great Thou
Art] by John Eifion,” Owens reveals. “There is something more special about it in Welsh. The words and the singer’s voice really help me to settle my nerves. I wouldn’t say that I am overly religious but I do believe and have faith and that is part of me and my upbringing. This is a religious song and often you turn to prayer in your hour of need – when you have a big game coming up or in tough times after games.”
Owens has known tough times. He received homophobic abuse from a couple of supporters at Twickenham during England’s defeat by New Zealand in 2014 and has admitted he attempted suicide before coming out as gay to his parents 20 years ago. Rugby, however, has been Owens’s lifeblood. He still remembers his first match – England versus Italy in 2007 – vividly, particularly as his father, Geraint, was present.
“I remember standing there for the anthems and looking up at the stand and just a couple of seats away from my dad, sitting beside Rob Andrew, was Prince Harry,” Owens recalls. “Dad was 72 and had never been to London and I knew for a fact that he hadn’t got a f------ clue that he was sitting a couple of seats away from the third in line to the throne. I can remember thinking that if I penalised England a couple of times, Prince Harry might shout something at the referee and my father will tell him to shut the f--up! It was the last thing I needed to worry about!
“I went upstairs afterwards and asked him ‘Did you notice who was sitting quite close to you?’ And he said: ‘Yeah, yeah, I saw him there’. I knew he didn’t know who he was so I said: ‘Who was it then?’ My dad replied: “It was that old England fly-half Rob Andrew and his son!’ He thought Prince Harry was Rob’s son. Unbelievable!”
Owens, now 46, is clearly still smitten with rugby: he cannot contain himself when I ask him to nominate his favourite match, France v England in the final round of the 2015 Six Nations.
“I knew England had to win to take the title but didn’t know by how many,” he says. “There was a line-out right at the end and they needed a try to win it and then I gave a penalty against England. The French scrum-half then tapped and went. It was just an unbelievable finish. It was my favourite match because it took the Six Nations to a new height.”
He has no plans to retire just yet – the 2019 World Cup in Japan remains a goal – but he admits to taking some pride in reaching this milestone in the Six Nations. “If anyone says to you ‘They are only numbers, they don’t mean anything’, they would be lying to you,” Owens added. “But I’m not carrying on refereeing because I want to reach a milestone. It’s because I am enjoying it.”