Welsh rugby ref Nigel Owens was on the receiving end of some moronic homophobic abuse after England’s epic 55-35 victory over France on the final day of the Six Nations.
The offending message apparently read: “Your [sic] a gay **** awful performance against france tonight, how did england top Wales?”
Thousands of fans and players jumped to support Mr Owens – rugby union’s only openly gay referee – and condemned the offensive and grammatically incorrect tweet.
Owens himself challenged the tweeter, saying: “You want me to report this homophobic tweet do you?”
An absolute pleasure & privilege to ref one of the best games of rugby ever . Huge credit to England & France for making it a great game
— Nigel Owens (@Nigelrefowens) March 22, 2015
Inside the hour, the perpetrator had apologised for the tweet and claimed his phone had been stolen prior. But it was too little, too late, as South Wales Police later said that they were to investigate the incident.
Thank you for advising @swpolice about the comments made by @edrydJames the matter is being investigated. Kind regards SWP
— South Wales Police (@swpolice) March 21, 2015
Owens had been targeted by homophobic d*ckheads at the last game he officiated at Twickenham, when he bore the brunt of some abuse from the stands following England’s loss to the All Blacks in the 2014 Autumn Internationals.
That time, the RFU moved swiftly to ban two men from HQ for two years, and order they pay a fine of £1,000 to a charity of Owen’s choice.
From our perspective, the Welsh man-in-the-middle had an excellent game, correctly judging that this car-crash of a tackle from English second-row Courtney Lawes was legit, and then later in the game issuing this stern Dad-like warning to the Red Rose skipper, Chris Robshaw:
If you want to watch a masterclass of refereeing from yesterday’s England vs France game, click here.
