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Wayne Barnes Retires

I remember the 2019 semifinals were a build up to his retirement and then England accidentally won.

Started refereeing at elite level very young, definitely produced the best games and my favorite ref. Also not the super athlete that a lot of unions think their referees need to be. Apparently the law is important.
 
Balls of steel and a class act, his banter with Goode was phenomenal

This man calls me a f***** cheat, he leaves the field

With the new laws and controversy, he'll be sorely missed
 
Ehhh I can't exactly come and say that he's great and rugby will moss him. There's a search function that allows you to look up all of my posts with Barnes or Barnesy in them. This is about as nice and accurate as they get from earlier this year:

"Barnes being right and the rest of world rugby refs being wrong has never sat well with me.

He's incredibly assured and consistent which is great. But he generally picks something out of thin air pre game and refs it to death for the first 20 mins. Not too well loved outside of England, Wales and Scotland (all teams with loads of prem experience) and is the only reason we didn't win a slam in 2014."

Seems like a good man all the same though. Good luck to him.
 
Great ref. One of the best of all time. Great that he got to finish with a World Cup final.
 
A good ref. Was always happy to see him ref us. Much higher level than most.
 
He used to be absolute ****. Used to never listen to anyone, would be so arrogant he would even sometimes refuse to check TMO when he should of and was generally a very smarmy kind of guy, thought he was bigger than the game but fair play, last few years he's been a lot better and probably is best in the game at the moment but that's more a statement on the others than Barnes himself. Good luck to him.
 
Shame; he went out at the very top. Can't say I blame him. Wouldn't want to be a referee.
 
Luke Pearce officially the best active ref. Actually had a decent argument of being above Barnes.
 
Luke Pearce officially the best active ref. Actually had a decent argument of being above Barnes.

Ah but its hard to take a 14 year old seriously*.


*Luke Pearce is 14, isn't he?



[Happy retirement Wayne!]
 
Best in the world at what he did and not many can say that. Hope he enjoys his retirement, but he still has a lot to offer so hope he stays involved somehow.

But genuinely, who'd be a ref nowadays?
 
Loss to the game that was only rivalled by Nige retiring.

Fair play to him, hes gone from being a bit hated 6/7 years ago to the best in the box, and hands down the best communicator we have ever seen
 
I read this yesterday and I refuse to believe any rugby people took part in this shameful acts of abuse, it must've been some of the "new fans" we're trying to incorporate

This is one of the negative aspects of rugby becoming more mainstream: the loss of our old values and standards, the slow but sure turning into a football-like show in which anything goes

my thoughts on Barnes and his family
 
I read this yesterday and I refuse to believe any rugby people took part in this shameful acts of abuse, it must've been some of the "new fans" we're trying to incorporate

This is one of the negative aspects of rugby becoming more mainstream: the loss of our old values and standards, the slow but sure turning into a football-like show in which anything goes

my thoughts on Barnes and his family
There must be hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who I would consider "rugby people". You're a lot more trusting than me if you don't think that a group of people that size contains a few bad apples.

I don't think it's a negative aspect of rugby becoming more mainstream as much as a negative aspect of modern society being reflected in the rugby community.
 
I read this yesterday and I refuse to believe any rugby people took part in this shameful acts of abuse, it must've been some of the "new fans" we're trying to incorporate

This is one of the negative aspects of rugby becoming more mainstream: the loss of our old values and standards, the slow but sure turning into a football-like show in which anything goes

my thoughts on Barnes and his family
I think with incidents of cheating, refs being abused, assaulted on the field of play, the buying of penalties. Rugby lost it's moral superiority over football along time ago.
If rugby doesn't attract new fans and players it will die. Most stats and adult player participation numbers indicate it's in decline and something needs to change.
 
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