Rugby needs characters but Henry Pollock needs to be careful with his behaviour, says Nigel Owens
06:00, 16 May 2026
Henry Pollock of Northampton Saints talks with referee, Matthew Carley(Image: 2026 Getty Images)
First of all, I think I said in my last column that George North was the last of that golden generation to hang up his boots just after Liam Williams did a few weeks before.
But I totally forgot about Leigh Halfpenny, who was obviously still going at Cardiff until last week when it was announced he was retiring at the end of the season.
I think that really is it now. That truly is the last of that generation of Welsh greats finished.
Halfpenny will sit up there with the very best of them. For me he was one of the best full-backs in the world during his peak, if not the best.
During his best years he was a true legend of the Welsh game. People sometimes use the word ‘legend’ quite lightly nowadays. But on and off the field he was one of the very best.
We’re very lucky that within that golden generation of Welsh rugby there were a few genuine legends of the game.
What you also got with your Halfpennys, your Warburtons, your Alun Wyn Joneses, and all these true legends of the game was a level of respect. They always conducted themselves well.
Wales’ Leigh Halfpenny
I refereed some of the toughest players there were to referee. Players that challenged you, and you had to really keep a close control on them.
But they were never disrespectful. Even though we’d had a few cross words with a few of them on the field and I had to put my foot down sometimes, there was never sort of any nonsense on the field with them.
Then we see what we saw last week in the incident involving Henry Pollock.
Whether he’ll be remembered as one of the greats remains to be seen.
He’s certainly a great talent with the potential to become one of the game’s finest. There’s no doubt about that, but you can’t place him in the same category as some of the great players at the moment.
For one, he needs to play a lot of caps for England, win things and be a regular starter in those games at international level. It seems he’s not quite there yet.
Will he get there in the future? We’ll have to wait and see.
Pollock has a sort of bit of a showboating thing about him – and that’s fine if you are that kind of player and that’s what makes you tick.
Rugby needs characters. Of, course it does.
But I was watching the game over the weekend and thought, “Oh, no. Now is not the time to be jumping up and down with the gum shield halfway out of your mouth enticing the opposition when you’re looking at a scoreboard that reflects poorly on your team.”
If I’d been reffing that game, then there would’ve been a stern, quiet word with him, I think.
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And look, it’s not my place as a referee to tell a player the style which they should play the game. But certainly as a referee, if you feel that anything is maybe causing an issue in the game or is going to cause players coming in and pushing each other, then it becomes a refereeing issue and something that you need to deal with.
You need to make sure you conduct yourself in a proper manner sometimes within the values of the game. He’s a very popular figure. I’ve never met him. I’ve never refereed him, I don’t think.
I don’t know what kind of guy he is. On the field, I don’t really mind him being the character that he is, because it’s great to have characters in the game.
But I thought he crossed the line a little bit, and he needs to be careful that he doesn’t get a reputation and doesn’t become a bit of a liability, I guess.
If you tread that line and all of a sudden you’re causing a little skirmish, the referee gets down hard on you and sends you off. He may well sometimes get in the opposition’s head. You go out there and you get on the opposition’s nerves and it can benefit you as a team, I guess, because they’re taking their eye off the ball, and obviously all they’re thinking about is his antics.
But it can work the other way as well.
You can wind the opposition up and they’re fired up then, thinking, ‘we’ll put this guy in his place’.
Henry Pollock had only been on the field a matter of minutes (Image: TNT Sports)
I just thought on the weekend it seemed to go against him a bit because they were pretty roundly beaten in that East Midlands derby.
I’d be the last person to tell anyone not to be themselves. I suppose some people didn’t like the way that I refereed the game.
But I can honestly say hand on heart that I never went out to showboat on the field. I just went out because I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being on the field. I loved reffing the game. I loved the rapport, the players, knowing that sometimes you have to put your foot down because you’ve got to control the game.
I just went out there and I was myself. Nobody liked a joke and a laugh on the field more than me. But there are some things that you don’t do. So, for example, and what I mean by that is if I’ve sent somebody off the scene or I’ve penalized a team and all of a sudden the opposition are going to kick three points and get the lead or win the game, that is not the time to have a joke and a laugh.
You would have never heard me having a joke and a laugh or smiling when I yell at somebody or penalise somebody.
I tell referees now, have a smile on the field. Look like you’re enjoying it. But just remember there’s a time sometimes when you don’t smile.
Finally, I was at the SRC Final at the weekend watching Ebbw Vale v Llandovery.
I’ve always been a fan of that level of rugby and I used to love reffing those games.
If I wasn’t reffing a pro game, I never wanted a weekend off. I always enjoyed reffing in the community game or the semi-pro game.
On the weekend we saw two good teams going at it, a good crowd there, a young referee Carwyn Sion reffing a final as well. He’s only been reffing, I think, just short of two seasons, I think. He did a very good job, I thought.
So it was really good to see some of the sort of next generation of talent coming through. Not just for players but for referees as well.
