Nigel Owens: End of Wales era exposes problem and shocking incident fallout was unacceptable

The legendary Test referee pays tribute to George North after his retirement and offers his view on the controversial Luke Morgan incident

I suppose this week has seen something of an end of an era.

George North was kind of the last remaining member of that last golden generation for Welsh rugby, along with the likes of Dan Lydiate, Jon ‘Fox’ Davies, Alun Wyn Jones and Dan Biggar, those types of characters who retired from the game in the past season or so.

North was probably the last great from that era still playing, and now we have to hope there’s a new generation for Welsh rugby and a new exciting chapter when it comes to players coming through in the next few years.

We’ve one or two already. Jac Morgan, I think, is one of the best players in the world right now. Dewi Lake and Aaron Wainwright have been impressive too and there’s obviously a lot of hype around players like Louis Rees-Zammit.

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But they’re individual players, really, whereas during the generation of North and others, there were stars in pretty much every position.

We haven’t got that strength in depth now, so let’s hope there’s a bunch more coming through soon. We have quite a few quality players but in the modern Test match environment you need pretty much two in each position.

But North was a wonderful player. I suppose if he’d have been playing 20 years ago he’d have been seen as something of a freak.

He was so young when he burst onto the scene for Wales. He was a big guy, strong, and you could see that in his game, perhaps most notably with that tackle on Israel Folau while playing for the Lions when he was carrying him on his back!

North will be remembered for a lot of things, but that’s the image that will probably be in a lot of people’s minds.

He’s one of the all-time Wales greats without a doubt.

He was a big player and a big attraction. When you talk about the regions being strong, it’s arguably something we haven’t got now.

In that era, kids would go down to watch because players like North would be on the team sheet.

We’ve got names as I mentioned, but Morgan, Lake and Wainwright, are obviously not going to be here next season.

So we need to find a way of getting those big names back on the field in our regions if we want the stadiums full. Both in the national and international game.

But I wish North all the best in his retirement and thank him for the success – the sort of success that people of my generation previously hadn’t really experienced.

Coming back to the regions, though. One of North’s old sides has once again been making a few headlines this week.

The Ospreys have found themselves in the firing line a little bit from the Sharks, who have effectively accused them of cheating over a controversy around uncontested scrums towards the end of their recent United Rugby Championship meeting.

There was also obviously the controversy over the late tackle on Ethan Hooker. Those incidents happen from time to time when a player seemingly needlessly comes in after a team scores and everything’s lost.

You’re entitled to dive in and try to prevent the try as long as it’s in goal, but what you’re obviously not allowed to do is go in dangerously.

Once you’re in the end goal area, the laws are different slightly in some phases to elsewhere on the field of play.

For one, elsewhere, you can’t dive in on that player and you have to give them the opportunity to get up or you can try and win the ball whilst you’re on your feet, even though the other player may be on the ground or getting up.

But on the goal line that law doesn’t apply, so you can try and tackle him as he’s going down or go and try to dislodge the ball as he’s falling.

What is illegal, however, is needlessly coming down on a player after they’ve already scored a try. That becomes foul play.

Or if you go down dangerously.

I don’t know Luke Morgan well, although I have refereed him a few times, but he doesn’t strike me as a player who would have done something like that with any intention.

So you’ve got to put that aside for a minute, but there’s no doubt what he did was dangerous and illegal.

This incident has in a way highlighted the issue, and unfortunately the fact it resulted in an injury is probably the reason why.

If Hooker hadn’t have been injured I’m not sure anyone would have really been talking about it.

At the very least it should have been a penalty on halfway, although I think in this case there’s an argument to say it should have been a penalty and a yellow card.

I don’t think it’s a red card, although the injury has prompted some to make that argument, but I think you’ve got to referee the action rather than the outcome.

But certainly there is a case for a debate that if your actions are deemed illegal or reckless and it has caused an injury to an opponent that is now off for the rest of the game, should you also not be off?

It’s not refereed that way, and never has been, but it is a valid point made by some that is worth a discussion.

I do think the fallout from it, however, with the abuse aimed at the player, has been totally unacceptable. I don’t think the player did that deliberately, but it was foul play. But even so, the fallout has been unacceptable.

It should have really been dealt with on the field.

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