Wayne Barnes to retire after 2019 World Cup

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/aug/29/wayne-barnes-rugby-referee-retiring-tmo

He's 39, so, conceivably, could get another World Cup cycle in but he has a young family, and 2019 will be his fourth tournament.

I know he gets a lot of flak, but I like Wayne Barnes as a ref. An air of calm with a bit of humour too. And unlike Steve Walsh he's not too bothered about what he looks like I can understand him wanting to retire at the top, especially with a growing family and another career to look after.

Cheers Wayne

Probably the best ref in the game since Nige became a celeb and more interested in getting ‘witty’ sound bites on YouTube. After him we’re not left with much quality now except the top French guys. Respect to Barnes for learning some French too which most other refs couldn’t be bothered with.

Perhaps he could have a swan song sorting out the issues with the Pro14. Would be a heck of a workload doing 7 games a weekend though.

Happy retirement Wayne.

Just when he started to improve he retires. Typical!

Any good Irish refs on the up, Sin? Lacey and Clancy are appalling. Even the anglicised JP is pretty bad.

Cyril wrote:Probably the best ref in the game since Nige became a celeb and more interested in getting ‘witty’ sound bites on YouTube. After him we’re not left with much quality now except the top French guys. Respect to Barnes for learning some French too which most other refs couldn’t be bothered with.

I'd agree with all of that ha.

All the best to him. I thought he refereed very well last weekend.

Delighted even if he has improved slightly in the last couple of years. I think he is probably more interested in being a celeb nowadays anyway thanks to BT sport.

Knocking the ABs out of the world cup was definitely the highlight of his career. Ill give him that one.

Big loss to the reffing world but opens the door for some of the younger guys in the English league to come through.

Barnes has definitely improved and is obviously getting his spoke in early for the RWC Final gig.

Whatever his aptitude, his retirement at 39 is symptomatic of how hard refereeing is becoming. Why would any sane person expose themselves to constant travelling, limited rewards, vitriolic criticism and the occasional death threat?

The Great Aukster wrote:Barnes has definitely improved and is obviously getting his spoke in early for the RWC Final gig.

Whatever his aptitude, his retirement at 39 is symptomatic of how hard refereeing is becoming. Why would any sane person expose themselves to constant travelling, limited rewards, vitriolic criticism and the occasional death threat?

I think it might be a vanity/ego thing. Both characteristics I can see in a few refs over the years including Steve Walsh, Wayne Barnes, Alan Lewis and even Nigel Owens. They all seem to enjoy being the centre of attention.

What's Paddy Power offering on an Irish slam in 2020?

Cyril wrote:Any good Irish refs on the up, Sin? Lacey and Clancy are appalling. Even the anglicised JP is pretty bad.

Jep. We're pretty good at producing good refs. Unfortunately, we can't benefit from them.
Joy Neville - World Rugby Referee of the Year last year is coming through very fast.

Collapse2005 wrote:

They all seem to enjoy being the centre of attention.

Let's not exclusively blame the named refs for that.  

They are wired for sound, so every morsel of comment from them goes through the fandom firestorm - which brings me neatly to the other aspect itself, that overdone fandom obsession with refs of all hues and all abilities and all their decisions.....

So if you're in the oven for a career why not try to settle in and enjoy the roasting temp notoriety?  

 A career is a career and Nigel has helped himself into a celebrity pay cycle just as many players try to do through their own career pathways...stand up Bowe, BOD, Barnes (the other one) and Bent (oops, sorry Bent, you just made a bad career move not a celebrity pathway one )

Anyway, good luck to Barnes and glad to see he's going to go into direct competition now with Walsh by starting his own hairdressing chain.  I do hope he gets a nice Watch on retirement - seems he's greatly in need of one in recent years.

Collapse2005 wrote:Delighted even if he has improved slightly in the last couple of years. I think he is probably more interested in being a celeb nowadays anyway thanks to BT sport.

Knocking the ABs out of the world cup was definitely the highlight of his career. Ill give him that one.

Yep have to agree with that. Made the ABs that much stronger that they havent lost a match at the tournament since, and counting. Easily the best non NZ contribution to nz rugby of all time.

Get ya Poopie....all the Poopie.....come and get it here

A man selling shyte online?

Now I've heard it all.  

Bet he becomes a multi-billionaire too.

SecretFly wrote:A man selling shyte online?

Now I've heard it all.  

Bet he becomes a multi-billionaire too.

Yeah but you'd think Barnes would want to be doing something a bit different than shovelling shyte uphill again