Top 5 Most Unlucky Referee Moments

5) Nigel Owens

One of the most well-known referees in the world, Nigel Owens was refereeing a Tri-Nations game between New Zealand and South Africa in 2010 when he unknowingly stepped into the path of Springbok defender Juan Smith trying to tackle Jimmy Cowan. Smith was forced to push Nigel right into Cowan getting tackled by Schalk Burger.

Nigel tumbled facedown into the grass, with all 114kg of Schalk Burger pressed down on top of him. Afterwards he wasn’t injured and walked it off laughing. 

4) Steve Marland

This incident happened during a match between two relatively lesser known clubs, Slade Point and Kuttabul played back in 2010.

The scrum half playing decided to box kick to clear the ball but Steve wasn’t expecting this and was standing in the wrong place, less than a meter away from the scrum half, when the ball was kicked at full force, right into his face and knocking him over.

He spent a good few minutes lying down recovering before slowly standing up and getting on with the game (looking a little wobbly but alright)!

3) Tony De Las Heras

De La Heras was refereeing a NRL clash in Australia between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Brisbane Broncos in early 2013. Jamie Simpson had made a great run through the Broncos defence and it looked like he was in for a spectacular try, or so everyone thought until they realised he was running straight at the referee in his path, Las Heras, who was trying his best to get out of the way.

Simpson knocked the referee over then jumped over him and kept running. As Las Heras was getting up, Broncos forward Tonie Carroll attempted to hurdle him to catch Simpson but misjudged the jump completely. Carroll’s knee brutally collided with Las Heras’ head knocking him unconscious.

Jamie Simpson, suffered a groin strain after jumping over the referee he had knocked over onto the ground. Tonie Carroll, the Broncos player missed his next match not as a as a result of the colliision with the referee. Tony De Las Heras was knocked unconscious and spent a week in hospital with concussion.

2) Roman Poite

In this video, it shows three different times referees have been knocked over but the video should start at 1 minute in, at which French referee Roman Poite is officiating a big match between two teams, Scarlets and Munster. He is caught standing completely in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the ball is taken out of the ruck, Poite is unknowingly in the way of a Scarlets forward trying to get to it, who tackles Poite aggressively in the back catching him completely off guard. The forward explained afterwards he thought Poite was the ball carrier!

Poite is winded and has to stay kneeling for a few minutes to recover but luckily, he walked away with no serious injuries.

1. Mathieu Raynal

Mathieu is a French referee that was officiating a Top14 game between Montpellier and Racing Metro in March 2013. A Montpellier player was tackled next to Raynal by a Racing Metro player, their momentum knocked into Raynal and sweeping his legs out from beneath him. He hit the ground hard and suffered a double fracture to his tibia and fibula, a broken right collarbone and a sprained right ankle.

He was unable to walk unassisted for 3 months following and couldn’t return to refereeing until February 2014, almost a full year later!

Bonus Moment – Nigel Owens

In a Leinster home match against Scarlets, a ball boy on the side-line passes the ball towards Scarlets who were waiting for the ball. He flung it and hit Nigel Owens on the back of his head on the pitch with his back turned, who seemed stunned for a second then turned around to face the bellboy, reached into his back pocket and showed the boy a yellow card, then pointing to the sin bin as the team and fans laughed.