Good to see Wayne Barnes correct pundits on NZ sending in review requests. Hugely disappointed to see and hear Lawrence reaction not being happy hearing the truth

Barnes is a legend. Im a kiwi and was happy to find out he was going to ref the final and he did a pretty good job in my opinion. Refs will never get everything 100% right but by no means did any of his calls cost us the world cup final. Retirement well deserved!!

Lawrence criticized Ben okeefe against SA and now he wants to make himself look better but he is also part of the problem

Thanks for interviewing Wayne, great to hear he is OK and hear the great responses to interesting/valid questions.

be really clear on what you are trying to achieve have a good group around you believe in what they say and be ready to be challenged! Gold! Mr Wayne Barnes... sir... thank you

Hell of a career, amazing referee. Congrats Barnsey, you'll be missed!

I watched many world cups games but the calls missed in the last game shocked me.

Thank you for this interview with a ref. We should see more of this.

Congratulations on a wonderful career Wayne!

The game needs to decide it is it a SPORT or ENTERTAINMENT. The problem with any company that have shareholders - they don't care about the product but only the bottom-line. Sport should always be fair -

Referring the RWC final must have been stressful. Well done on pulling off a fair and balanced performance.

He was superb in the final.

Good man. Will be missed. Thanks

As a kiwi. You were the best man for job of the World Cup Final. Disappointed we lost yes. Didn’t agree with some of your decisions on both sides. After all your a human being and you may make mistakes. You’re trying to do the best job you can at the time. The All Blacks had their chances to win. Congratulations on a Stella career. In my books your always welcome to NZ.

so whats the consequences of a ref making multiple wrong decisions ?

Wayne Barnes "We will find out who you are". Anyone who disagrees with The State will be in serious trouble then. There is no "only on certain circumstances" with State control.

It really doesn’t need three people to interview one.

Wayne Barnes........ legend, i would love to see the like of Wayne and Mr Owens added to the rugby hall of fame because with out them we would'nt have the game to play.

Thanks for been so great

Legend of a man proud this country has consistently delivered the best of referees.

Cheers Sara, Stocking fillers for the lads sorted... The Book. and one for me too 😀

Every country thinks their referee is the best international referee. Probably because they didnt have to deal with them during international matches 😂😂

You are a class act Mr. Barnes. Thank you for your service and I am truly sorry for the abuse you had to endure. Enjoy your retirement.

Wayne Barnes has been outstanding.

And the rugby fraternity are constantly banging on about how different the values of rugby are to football. Perhaps not so far.

Well done Wayne - wonderful performance !

He was ok. But his mistake was allowing Foley to ruin his last test.

Everybody had a go at Wayne Barnes officiating the final.up to date nobody even mentioned the 2 linesman. Dont they also have a say in these games .I As a spectator also see the same game as they are aren't they allowed to have a say in the game for something that the referee didn't pick up.

Great interview … although being called Jon and living in Twickenham … I would say that Wayne Barnes is the best we have so a shame he has retired

❤Was really happy when I 1st saw u goner be incharge of d final Sir

At my first under 12’s RL game, the coaches told us ‘we’ve no game without the ref’ They’re there for the love of the game. Let’s remember that.

Barnes was a good ref. Sad to see him go

Fantastic 👍

This world cup really highlighted the team effort that goes into refereeing a game. Perhaps the team should be appointed the refereeing duties, as opposed to an individual figure. I tend to think Barnes was strongly let down by the TMO and touch officials.

Dallaglio two weeks ago blamed the referee for England losing to South Africa. What a hypocrite

As a hard core AB's fan, yeah not too happy about much of the refereeing (esp. the TMO) of that final but it is what it is. South Africa won the 4th cup before we did, but we did win the first, second and third before them 😉Seriously though, death threats is a bit extreme, even our cops didn't have guns all my life, they do now and it's in the boot of their cars, not on their person. There's a reason why the SA win was important for their nation and apparently not so for NZ (so I've been hearing). You're welcome here Wayne, it'll be icy at first, but then as we say here "she'll be right".

Spoke about Tom Curry abuse from South Africans... has anyone seen the comments about Bongi Mbonambi from English and French fans... absolutely shocking...meanwhile there is a clear audio and video of what he said before Tom went to ref and was cleared by World Rugby..but media headlines labeled him racist and he got so much abuse...so looks like it is only fair for some

Can only imagine the noise if RSA complained about the ref

I see that Lawrence has taken to piano playing !

Thanks Barnsey all the haters aren’t real rugby fans and we don’t need them in rugby all the best from New Zealand 🇳🇿

Thank you Wayne Barnes and your family. God bless you.

A proper rugby referee!!!

What's happened that some behave like this? I wonder about the emotional maturity of today's "adults." Why are threats now so common, particularly in sport, which is "only a game." If losing makes someone get extremely upset or issue threats maybe they don't have the maturity to watch sport, that in itself is quite a worry.

I remember about 15 years ago when the ref was announced at a Scottish International, say against Ireland, its "Wayne Barnes!" Jesus we have an idiot!, and I had a bit of justification for that, but now, you are the best in the world, enjoy your retirement!

Sarra you can talk the whole day with your voice, I will just listen... beautiful voice

Personal attacks towards Wayne and Family , or any Ref is uncalled for. Refreee's make calls that seem inconsistent or incorrect and as we never see any part of their review process, it seems like they are able to make these calls with no questions asked (to be clear, refs need to be able to make mistakes to learn from ). World Rugby and refreeing needs to be more transparent. Hard Job Wayne did for a long time, thanks for your service from one New Zealander at leas

Just a quick question! If the top 12 referees go to the RWC, as stated by Barnesy, it goes that the top 2 refs get the semifinals? Correct? Oh.......

Nice venue for exercising.

Some of the abuse is truly awful, but I dont think basically policing speech is a good long term strategy for society it will only end badly.

8:10 lol this dude wants investigations for inappropriate language hahahaha

Why doesn’t he just get his decisions right

You robbed ABs of a try in final....you went back 4 phases not 2, good riddance Barnes, you will not be missed.

Dallaglio average player average pundit. Interesting Barnes talks about trust, I never trust him when hes reffing, something is always going to pop up. Actually I'm glad he has retired.

i don't blame the referee for anything. But I will never watch another game of rugby. The game is dead to me after the debacle of that final.

If thats the best referee the Northern hemisphere can produce, they will never win another world cup. Rubbish.

What a gent.

What a surprise. Wayne Barnes seeking to be the star of the show again. I’ve had death threats in my work many times. Meh. Maybe we could use the same ‘forensic’ team that Wayne mentioned could find those who made these threats, to assist referees in not making blatant errors. Quick question for Wayne. When searching ‘TMO rules’ on the World Rugby website, we are directed to a document. As we read the top of page 3, we read the rules for TMO decisions, after being asked by a referee if the try should be awarded, we can see that the TMO can only adjudicate on whether or not the try should be awarded, for infringements that are TWO phases before the try. Aaron Smiths try had a knock on which was FOUR phases back. Was this a minor detail that slipped the ‘worlds best’ rugby referee and the TMO? I’ve seen more proficient refereeing at club games. I wonder if Wayne will apologise for this error. What a disgraceful lack of knowledge for a Rugby World Cup final. Players have dedicated their lives to high performance sport, only to have their efforts thwarted by a referee that misses a 1.5 metre forward pass or the above mentioned error with the TMO and Wayne Barnes missing the memo about TMO’s not being able to officiate on knock ons FOUR phases back.

You dis a great job under lot of pressure. Boks was better team and they won. Not your fault.

You should’ve retired the same day you started to ref Stevie wonder would ref better

WB, it is a shame due to the abuse. It is their ugliness that will stay with them unless if you let them get to you. Fair play to you. Kind regards from a Springbok supporter. God bless your path.

To the bald guy on this podcast, there’s alot of what ifs about this game due to the TMO intervention. But you forgot what if Wayne Barnes reversed his wrongly given penalty to ardie savea after seeing it on the big screen? 👀 so instead of mocking the ABs missed opportunities consider both sides of the fence

Joke of a ref, he let the TMO steam roll all over any sort of authority he had in the World Cup Final. Our greatest set piece in rugby was tarnished by the whole referee collective, good riddance in my opinion, let us hope everyone involved moves on as well. Always knew the guy was a complete joke, wanting to censor free speech proves that point.

Is Lawrence on the go?

Lawrence someone who says they have particular moral beliefs but behaves in way that shows these are not sincere.

England legend Lawrence Dallaglio claimed NZ referee Ben O'Keeffe "won" South Africa the Rugby World Cup semi-final against England, yet here he sits with England's referee, Wayne Barnes who "won" SA the RWC Final against New Zealand? Not a peep!?

absolute legend!! can laugh at himself and acknowledge his mistakes, unlike too many in our game these days and so many armchairs nobodies!! thank you wayne barnes for such an incredible career and more importantly your amazing contribution, to our great game! certain people shouldn't be allowed in the game, a certain international identity for example!! without people like wayne barnes, we don't have a game! as an ex player, i never had a perfect game and having played with or against some absolute legends and superstars of the game, they would also say they never had a perfect game. disgusts me how some people are in regards to the refs. pathetic people, and to repeat including a certain international identity!

The problem is that supporters are ignorant to the laws of the game and make assumptions on what they believe the call should be. Wayne Barnes has always been a great referee and I have always found him to be professional and impartial. As a New Zealander we need to apologise for our behaviour and thank you for your service to this wonderful game. After all it is only a game.

Interesting chat. Barnes opening up about WR required mandate to get more people to watch the game Pre-WC and how WR rugby should seek to find a more levelled solution to better manage the game in the future. Produce a product that works for all parties and entertaining at the same time. Funny that, this is an age old argument that's been going around in circles for years, and yet we still find ourselves in this same position. Barnes is a good referee (I don't think he's the best in the world), but imo he was poor in the final, him the TMO and the other officials. However, although it doesn't surprise me, LD sits in front of him and after slagging off Ben O'Keeffe for poor refereeing in the SA/England game (Ben O'Keeffe got a lot of abuse and threats by the English and French supporters). He has the cheek to nod in agreence to Barnes's point of view regarding abuse of officials, etc. Absolute hypocrite. I don't agree with abuse and threats towards officials, players or anyone for that matter, but unfortunately, this is the world we live in. And as Barnes suggested, threats need to be managed better by the authorities, but in the same breath he knew what he was signing up for when he decided to become an international referee. My only question, is Barnes only highlighting this issues now because he and his family has come under scrutiny? Abuse in all sports has been a problem for very long time. Spare a thought for Foster, Cane and others. I think the panel missed a trick here. After the feel good Q&A moments, they could have highlighted a few contentious issues Barnes and his officials didn't rule on, or decided to rule another way in the final. Allow Barnes the opportunity to clarify his position and give the viewers a better understanding of the officials interpretation of the rugby laws applied to certain situations and how they came to their finding and ultimately the punishments awarded. NZ Rugby has every right to put forward questions to WR after the final that's their right and WR should clarify all points submitted, and also it should be made public. I just surprised Rassie hasn't jumped on the bandwagon as well. Some of the issues he raised in the past showed it's ugly head in the final.

Can some tell LD to stop banging the table it's very annoying..the sounds

Great ref , done a fantastic job in final

Biggest cheat amongst all refs.

We SAns learned a lesson attacking refs, now we accept their calls right or wrong. New Zealanders cant take losing also some English and French ones. If everything was against us and we lost, what then. Then if we complain they would say ACCEPT IT. MADNESS REALKY. W Rugby protects refs, too many rules in the game. They are the haters and destructors of the gMe WR.

not always a fan of barnes end of an era for one of the best thz results cloud your judgment PUNDITS OPINION RESULTS DRIVEN NOT PERFORMANCE

Thanks guys - great discussion - and really appreciate all your diligence Mr Barnes to the art of refereeing - what a career..congratulations

How disheartening is it to have your call corrected by someone that can review frame by frame, and is the T.M.O more important than the reff now? I've known of you for a while now, you have made some some calls to ensure we rugby fan's remember you, thank you for everything you've given to our sport, all the very best to you.

How is it possible to sound so good saying "referee" in the Welsh accent! 🙂

Two biggest problems in rugby - dealing with upright tackling and one-score games decided by marginally adjudicated decisions on penalties in closing minutes. As for the latter, we need a law that allows refs to downgrade non-blatant transgressions to free kicks in the last, say, 10 minutes. This helps rule out results hanging on fine margin calls mostly on rucks, scrums and mauls.

Respect to Wayne Barnes, it takes real balls to be a big game ref, I haven't always agreed with him, but it must be the most difficult game to arbiter, and it is literally impossible to get everything right. The problem is coaches/teams influencing refs as the bigger the team the more influence they have.

Nobody is perfect ! Very difficult to satisfy everybody with zero oversight. So did AB loose the RWC final because of Barnes, most definitely not. What the Referee did do wrong was not to take serious action on AB starting at the Twickenham in which the AB were given too let offs and finally penalized, they think “lets test the Ref” Eventually the Ref had 2 player in sin bin, but by then they had saved probably 2 tries. Quicker response to ongoing foul play will not only stop the conduct but remove criticism of supporter about the flow of the game. I totally support TMO review, it is making player be a lot more careful about foul play, and poor sideline referring of forward pass. Why is rugby not giving touchline ref the same control as soccer, blow forward pass / offside, most important, touchline ref, get in position to identify this situation, they do in soccer. Then TMO won’t need to do that part of the job. But don’t disappoint supporters with ongoing oversight in favour of a particular team. And AB have had benefit of officials being tentative of blowing them for far FAR too long. Start playing within the rules buddy AB and stop crying when you loose, some of your buy-in of Pacific player are now in other teams. Personal comment, Rassie has raised the Boks tactics significantly and unseated the AB at the top, and he is not going away. Boks are play in Europe and not in Super rugby, while Aussies are at a low, down under rugby needed the Boks, but somehow travelling east is hard on jet lag impact. Boks just never could make it work.

Barnes did a great job of letting the final play out. Congrats on a great career. Good luck on his retirement/law practice from an NZ fan.

Barnes is not a bad referee, it’s the overall system that is rotten.

Brilliant interview

Can Lawrence please stop drumming the table it's really annoying to listen to donk donk donk the whole time.

He would be a great pundit top ref even though being Irish I didn’t always agree with his decisions against us

Seems like a good bloke, but sometimes if you make the wrong calls and cost rugby teams the win then fair enough he gets abit of stick. Threatening to kill and harm refs and their families now that’s horrible and their should be punishment for that abuse. But I don’t think refs should get away Scot-free if they make the wrong calls.

Errors are a part of rugby and each team needs to factor those into the game. Players miss tackles, drop balls, give away penalties, and referees will miss things and misinterpret things. There has never been a game where no mistakes have been made, players and referees included, and fans (and indeed players and coaches) need to accept this isn’t going to change anytime soon. If a player misses a match-winning conversion, what does their coach nearly always say? “That didn’t cost us the game. We had opportunities to win and we didn’t take them.” Yet if a referee makes an incorrect decision too many coaches, players and fans will say the ref cost them the game. But in reality it’s no different. The best teams are able to win in spite of player and referee error, and we can add coaching error in their too. Of course the standard of referees needs to face scrutiny, as does the standard of players, and both of them are, through official channels (governing bodies and coaches). But to expect 100% accuracy from referees, and be outraged when it doesn’t happen, is just unrealistic. I’m a rugby fan who’s been infuriated by key decisions going against my team. I’ve seen awful high tackles, knock ons, forward passes etc. all missed, sometimes at crucial moments in the game. But I’ve also breathed a sigh of relief when ref mistakes go in favour of my team too. That’s why I find referee abuse not only disgusting but also nonsensical. Sometimes a bad call may seemingly cost a team a game, but unless you want AI refereeing that would most likely stop the game for infringements every 20 seconds, you have to accept your team lost because they weren’t dominant enough to not rely on a single moment to win a game. The same as if your kicker misses the winning kick for the posts.

What's the female doing there

I don’t think any of his decisions were the bad on the day. The rules might not be that popular but teams adapt.

Excellent Ref sad to see you go to bad people wont grow up as although refs are rulling the way they have been told from WRU and that the bad thing just want to see common sense from WRU and at the moment it is not.

He will be sorely missed on the international stage. Also loved his banter with Goody. There was no void when Nigel retired because of Barnes, and I hope we can get the same kind of talent coming onto the refereeing scene in years to come with the game being so difficult to officiate as it is now.

Barnes were really good at Word Cup. A real ice man

Barnes is such a lickable guy. All the best for the future

Wayne Barnes should have retired in 2007 already. He was never really a great referee. His dislike of the All Blacks clouded his judgement. Good riddance. Awful last game.

Proud Saffa salutes you mate. Played at higher level, you a star 🌟