By Nigel Owens

Copyright walesonline

I haven’t done a lot of refereeing since I retired in 2020. My last game as a pro referee was in August 2021 when I refereed a match between Trimsaran and Llanelli, and apart from that I took charge of Lampeter’s game against London Welsh earlier this year to celebrate the home side’s 150th anniversary. But last month it was a privilege to referee a game down in Pembrokeshire between Crymych RFC Youth and Pembrokeshire RFC Youth – both the u17s and 18s in two separate halves. It was part of a day of events to raise money for Isaac Davies, a young farmer and Crymych RFC player who towards the end of last year was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Isaac has been treated and is now hopefully on the journey to a full recovery. The whole fundraiser has raised almost £100,000. Isaac’s Crymych jersey sold at an auction they held on the day for £11,000 – you won’t even fetch that much for a worn All Blacks jersey! A few things really stood out to me during that Bank Holiday match in Crymych. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. There was a hell of a crowd there and it was typical of the rugby community and the types of communities you find in rural parts of Wales as well as in the Valleys too. Whenever there is a fundraiser like this you get people from all walks of life coming together from both the rugby and farming communities. The second thing that stood out for me was the quality of the rugby on show. There were two games – one under-17 and one under-18 – and as I was reffing I kept thinking ‘wow’. They were very physical, high-tempo, quality games, with a lot of talent and a lot of promise on show. I needed all of my 35 years of refereeing experience to keep on top of it. I asked club officials how many of these players were involved with academies and they replied “none of them”. I said: “You what?!” Now, I don’t know why these players aren’t involved with academies, whether it’s down to the players themselves not taking the opportunity if given it, or the system, or maybe our rugby academies in Wales are just so full to the brim with talent that they can afford to leave out talent like this, although I am not convinced that this is the case. I was very surprised. But one thing is for sure – grassroots rugby in Wales is alive and kicking. If you took that day in Crymych in isolation you would be scratching your head and asking yourself ‘what the hell is wrong with Welsh rugby if it’s that strong at the lower, local level?’ I was a bit rusty running around the field – it had been a while! – but for me that day gave me hope for the future of Welsh rugby. The amount of money they raised says it all about the community in that area and the wider rugby community – it tells you everything that is good about Welsh rugby. Of course there are challenges when looking to the future of the game in Wales in general. Often when you turn on the TV to watch the regions play the ground is less than half empty and there’s a lack of atmosphere. Go back eight to 10 years and a game between the Scarlets and the Ospreys would have sold out in both stadiums. That’s not the case anymore. Now you turn on the TV and you wonder where it’s all gone wrong. So when I saw what I saw in Crymych it was extremely refreshing to see that the passion for rugby in Wales is still there, it still burns brightly. There are positives out there, we just need to build on them. What people tend to forget in Wales more than any other country is that rugby is based around communities. People go to watch teams because that team is what they have been brought up on. People don’t want to support other teams; they want to support their team, their club. People go to watch a team because it’s part of their identity and whatever the WRU decides to do with the future of Welsh rugby we need to make sure people aren’t forced to lose a part of their identities. The international team still has a strong identity and that is why they continue to attract big crowds, even during times where the side is really struggling as we have seen recently. People need to feel an affiliation. I haven’t got the answers, but something has to change in Wales, we can’t carry on as we are. But we have to remember what Welsh rugby is all about, and I was reminded of it that day in Crymych. It was everything that is still right about rugby in this country, and in order to secure its future we should never forget what it was that made the sport so strong in the past.