There appears to be a slight disparity at the moment between the hemispheres in terms of how the game is officiated
05:15, 13 Jun 2026
Nigel Owens believes there needs to be greater consistency in how referees approach games this sumnmer(Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire.)
As we head into the summer internationals and, of course, the first ever Nations Championship, officiating is likely to once again be under the spotlight.
Could we maybe see a few tweaks in how games are refereed? Perhaps.
But personally, one of the big things I’d like to see from referees is a bit of consistency around foul play, especially if it’s sent to the bunker.
Also, we do tend to see a slight variation depending on where you are.
In Super Rugby, for example, it tends to be a slightly different sort of game in terms of approach. It’s very big on entertainment and tries.
But you’ll tend to see sometimes that they’ll maybe not be as strict on certain areas as referees on the world stage in the last season or so. Win free tickets to watch Fiji v Wales in Cardiff this summer.
So I think this summer there’ll be southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere referees coming together and there’s always a debate over whether referees down there are doing things a little too differently.
It’s not really down to the referees, I think, it’s more to do with the tournament they’re officiating in, the style of play by the teams, some of which have their own sort of priorities, I guess, and let’s not forget the weather also plays a part.
That can probably be a bit frustrating at times for spectators because they will think it should all be under the broad rugby umbrella.
So, for example, the 20-minute red card push has really come from Australia and New Zealand from the southern hemisphere. There will always be a slight variation, I think, in terms of how the two hemispheres want to referee the game. We saw recently at the State of the Game meeting, the pushback from some countries against what other countries were proposing as law changes.
But what World Rugby has to do is to make sure everyone’s aligned and consistent, no matter what tournaments the teams play in outside the international window, which will hopefully make it easier for referees when they’re officiating in a different hemisphere.
So I think heading into the Nations Cup and the Rugby Championship, that will be the key thing many will be looking for. It’s certainly what I’d like to see.
I do think some referees are maybe not as strict on foul play as some of the others are.
During the Six Nations, and I think the Autumn internationals as well, we did maybe see a lack of consistency around the sanctions for foul play.
Something that was a clear red card in some games wasn’t given in others.
For me, a straight red should also be a full red. Not a 20-minute red card. So there’s still some work to be done on that area, and that’s hopefully what we’ll see when the inaugural Nations Cup rolls round.
There are clearly some referees who are very technical and will referee purely on the basis of what the law tells them, but there are others who maybe will referee on the feel of a game, and maybe won’t follow the rulebook as stringently. I suppose I fell into the latter, along with some others.
But I suppose what you risk then is referees going too far the other way in that they allow too many things to go.
In the Six Nations, the ones that refereed better in my view, and contributed to better games of rugby, were the ones that managed to get the balance right.
The referees who go on to be exceptional referees are the ones who get that balance right, and often end up being the ones who land World Cup finals or big games like that.
What referees were really strong on in the Six Nations was getting a tackler out of the way and not rewarding a jackal when the tackler was still hanging about.
I think that contributed to a faster, more open game.
But what we’ve seen creeping into recent games is players deliberately holding a tackler in, in order for the referee then to not reward the jackler or penalise the tackler.
So referees need to be aware of what is essentially cheating, with players maybe putting their knees on the tackler to stop him moving away or holding him in there to make sure he’s penalised.
I’ll be interested to see how referees deal with that sort of gamesmanship that’s coming in. I’ve seen it in the last few rounds of URC games and in Europe already.
So referees need to be strong on that.
They’ve recently been quite strong on offside in front of the kick and on the back foot. By allowing that little bit more space, I think it has contributed to some really open games of rugby that we saw in the Six Nations.
I hope they continue to be strong on that and on refereeing scrums, and dealing with the foul play a bit better too because there was a little too much head-scratching over what was and what wasn’t a red or yellow card.
I think there’s still some work to do around that, but hopefully see some progress on that in the Nations Cup and beyond.
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