At the event, held on Thursday 11 January 2024 at Llety Cynin, St Clears, the bumper crowd heard from the world-renowned referee about his journey from a young boy on a council estate in Mynyddcerrig to becoming one of the most respected men in world rugby and now a farmer.
Nigel's earlier life
Nigel told members that the village of Mynyddcerig is very similar today, as it was when he was growing up in the 1970s. He recalled that everyone spoke Welsh and he couldn’t speak English until he was taught in primary school at the age of five or six. After passing his 11 plus exams, he went from two classes with 14 pupils to Gwendraeth Grammar School, where there were over 1,000 pupils.
Shortly after the phasing out of the grammar school, Nigel moved to Maes yr Yrfa School along with his friends. He performed in the Eisteddfod, appeared on a number of S4C children’s programmes and started refereeing. Despite his illustrious career in refereeing, Nigel told members that this was not his ambition. He revealed his dream, in fact, was to appear live on the Antiques Roadshow - something he is yet to achieve!
YFC
Nigel is passionate about the YFC movement, joining Llanarthney YFC and becoming club leader was a proud moment for him. He described the YFC as ‘the greatest youth movement in the world’ and while keeping the core values of farming are important, it also gives youngsters other opportunities to perform and provides people who are not from a farming background a chance to get involved.
Farming had also always been in his heart. He helped out on his grandparents’ smallholding when he was a child and when he left school, he went to work on a local farm in Drefach as part of the Youth Training scheme. After finishing work on the farm, Nigel worked as a youth worker and school technician for 13 years before refereeing began taking up more of his time and he turned professional in 2001.
Refereeing career
Describing his refereeing career, Nigel said he ‘travelled all over the world for the best part of 20 years, refereed some of the greatest matches and people of all time’ and in 2015 he oversaw the Rugby World Cup Final between Australia and France at Twickenham.
Speaking about his career highlights, Nigel said that of course the World Cup Final was special, but it was more what it meant to his dad and his village. He said, ‘it was like carnival week, the club was open every night’ and he wished he could have been there to see it all.
Life after refereeing
When his 20-year refereeing career was coming to an end, Nigel knew he needed a plan. He said he ‘didn’t want to wake up one morning and not know what to do.’ He told the audience that when he was eight-years-old he knew he wanted to be a farmer and so he saved up during his refereeing career to buy a farm. He had already purchased 28 acres and his plan was to put up a shed and keep eight or 10 Hereford cows, a breed he has always liked, a view shared by his grandfather who once said ‘there is nothing better than a field of Herefords’.
In 2019, Nigel bought four Hereford heifers and headed out to Japan for the Rugby World Cup. He said he knew this was going to be his last world cup as he was getting older and there was a lot of travelling, with around 200 nights away from home a year. While he says he ‘wouldn’t change it for the world’, home was where he wanted to be, with his Herefords.
Smallholding
Following hanging up his whistle after refereeing 100 matches in 2021, Nigel now owns a smallholding along with 60 acres, he rents a further 40 and the herd has grown to 78 cows and he says he planned his next chapter around his passion for farming. He believes that we need to ‘promote farming better’ and that while some of the challenges ahead are not for the best, he says we have to ‘embrace change’.
One of his biggest worries it the threat and impact of bovine TB. He says that he knows what mental health struggles feel like and the impact TB is having on farmers needs addressing. He believes we need to educate the people who don’t understand the issues it brings but if we continue to pull together, we can ‘force change’.
NFU Cymru Deputy President Abi Reader then addressed the audience, where she outlined NFU Cymru’s lobbying work on the rural affairs budget and the ongoing development of the Sustainable Farming Scheme.
Incoming NFU Cymru Carmarthenshire County Chairman Hefin Jones said: “I’d like to thank Nigel for coming along to our County Conference. While rugby refereeing is clearly a massive part of his life, it was clear to see his passion for the farming industry. Ensuring the next generation of farmers have chances to better themselves appears vitally important to him, as well as his work with anti-bullying and mental health charities. I’d also like to thank Deputy President Abi Reader for coming along and updating us on the work of the union.”