Wayne Barnes

Wayne Barnes has retired.

Personally I thought he was always a very good ref and absolutely one of the very best refs over the last few years

Happy retirement

Usually technically accurate in what he would call. Would be ticky-tacky at the start of games (to settle sides down). Overall a good ref. It's hard when both sides commit multiple infringements at every scrum/breakdown to ping for a single thing.

The next gen of refs are even more technical and prescriptive in their whistling. Preferred the days when a ref would get out of the way of a game whenever possible.

One of the best refs I've ever seen, up there with Nigel Owens. Rugby will be poorer for his absence.

His retirement is no surprise, I think he would have retired after 2019 if he got the WC final that year, but I wonder what he would have done if England had held on v South Africa?

It's more difficult than ever to be a referee these days, as they have to put up with social media analysis, a game more intense than it's ever been, dissent on the rise, and the scum of the world issuing threats on social media, so I'm concerned for the future of the game in that regard. And Barnes is a big loss.

Duty281 wrote:One of the best refs I've ever seen, up there with Nigel Owens. Rugby will be poorer for his absence.

His retirement is no surprise, I think he would have retired after 2019 if he got the WC final that year, but I wonder what he would have done if England had held on v South Africa?

It's more difficult than ever to be a referee these days, as they have to put up with social media analysis, a game more intense than it's ever been, dissent on the rise, and the scum of the world issuing threats on social media, so I'm concerned for the future of the game in that regard. And Barnes is a big loss.

That's a shame for the sport, but I must imagine it is hard to keep in shape to referee to go a full 80 and keep up or even stay ahead of the action. Plus the inevitable abuse - death threats are so far beyond the Pale as to really be a separate discussion.

Except for Barnes completely misunderstanding a fine gentleman named Mr. Dylan Hartley, he was certainly one of the best.

When discussing referees, I like to remind people that the NFL has, I believe, 8 officials on the pitch during play, and they still get some wrong. How can a single Rugby official catch everything?

The big thing I like about Barnes is how clearly he explains his process. Makes it a lot easier to accept the decision, even if you don't agree.

Everyone excited for lots more Karl Dickson in big games going forward?

Wishing him a long and happy retirement. He's definitely going out on his own terms and at the top of his game.

I think he's long been the best ref around. Owens was a marginally better game manager, and Poite at his best was probably the most accurate in technical terms, but Barnes had the best overall balance of making the right call at the right time.

Most importantly for the game, he was the first ref to really understand how to work with the TMO, and a lot of the procedures that everyone follows today - using the big screen, asking for checks in the background while play continues, the protocol of telling the TMO what he is seeing and establishing the facts and his own view before asking for any disagreements - all originated with him.

Lowlandbrit wrote:The big thing I like about Barnes is how clearly he explains his process. Makes it a lot easier to accept the decision, even if you don't agree.

Everyone excited for lots more Karl Dickson in big games going forward?

I've been thinking a bit about Dickson. A lot of fans aren't, well, fans. But the rugby authorities don't seem to have an issue with him and that presumably means that the feedback he gets from ref assessors and the teams that he officiates is positive.

I suspect that the root of that is that he had a long playing career at scrum half - so has seen a lot of the dark arts up close. He sees the game like a player, and so some of the calls he makes that baffle fans on the touchlines make much more sense to the players, who will have a much better idea of what he's responding to.