Nigel Owens has revealed that he officiated the majority of the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final between England and the All Blacks whilst carrying an injury.
Eddie Jones’ England team marched to a 19-7 upset victory, booking their place in the final against South Africa.
The fixture would prove to be the final World Cup match that Owens officiated during his storied career, as he would hang up his whistle in 2020 after taking charge of his 100th Test match – France v Italy.
The Welshman was widely expected to referee the showpiece event if Wales failed to beat South Africa in the second semi-final – which proved to be the case – but he was ultimately ruled out through an injury he sustained during England’s win.
Injuries for referees seldom occur, but one did happen during the Six Nations clash between England and Ireland in round three of the 2026 Championship with Andrea Piardi being forced to withdraw and hand over control of the match to Pierre Brousset.
Nigel Owens’ Rugby World Cup injury
This prompted Owens to revisit one of the rare occasions that he did sustain an injury but, unlike Piardi, he was able to referee the remainder of the game.
“I was very, very lucky in my career, very few injuries. In 25 years of refereeing, I tweaked a calf out for a game, but never came off,” he said on World Rugby’s Whistle Watch show.
“The World Cup semi-final 2019, I’d done about 10 games, international matches, in a period of about three months – it was a lot.
“I tweaked my calf 25 minutes into the game but the England-New Zealand game was such a brilliant game of rugby.
“I could just orchestrate it. I didn’t need to get in and sort the contact area. I could manage it and got to the end.”
His injury wasn’t even spotted by players, with then-England captain Owen Farrell expecting to see him the following week in the final.
Owens continued: “Owen Farrell came to me after the game and said, ‘Thanks for the match, we’ll see you in the final now’ and I said, ‘My calf’s gone’.
“He said, ‘Where did that go? It didn’t show.’”
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Process if a referee does get injured
The Welshman went on to explain what the process is for when a referee is able to continue a match due to injury, explaining that the way the officials are appointed plays a pivotal role in deciding who takes over.
“It’s not simple making international match official appointments,” he said.
“One, you’ve got to pick the right guy for the game. You’ve also got a balance then giving people experience to bring the next generation through to challenge referees and also then you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got two assistant referees on the sideline capable of doing the work as well.
“One of those assistant referees, and this will be key, is the number one. So AR1 (assistant referee 1) will also be the reserve referee.
“So if a referee goes down injured, he goes on. If he goes down, then AR2 will go on, don’t ask me if the three of them go down, the TMO is going to come down from the box. Well, it could happen.
“In the game, you would have had two English AR3 and AR4, so they basically just manage and look after the subs. So one of them went on to become AR2 for that game.
“It very rarely happens but it does occasionally, as we saw on the weekend and those are the contingency plans in place.”