This wasn’t the first time the police had been involved in a game officiated by Owens, although the other occasion was far from funny. As a ‘teenage refereeing rookie’ he was in charge of a match between the Dyfed Powys Police B team and Cefneithin. Nigel Owens has revealed a fabulous story about the Queen which put him at ease during perhaps his most embarrassing moment. However, it got so awkward that at one stage I even had an informal chat over coffee with the Rugby Football Union’s referees’ manager, Tony Spreadbury, about switching to their refereeing banner across the Severn Bridge in England. That was the last thing I wanted to do really as a fiercely proud Welshman. Owens saw his fame explode after he refereed the 2015 World Cup final between New Zealand and Australia and found himself invited onto the BBC's flagship show Desert Island Discs. He was without doubt the best referee of his era, taking charge of the World Cup final, 100 Test matches, a record number of Six Nations games and also seven European Cup finals.

Coupled, of course, with those epic on-pitch lectures to players which ended up becoming social media sensations. 'This Is Not Soccer', a dressing down given to 22-times capped Italian player Tobias Botes who was showing dissent, is the most famous of the lot. The slogan actually appears on the front cover of the book. It's been a stressful week so the game itself has been far from my mind this week with the TB testing, which can be heart-breaking if the result is positive - but thankfully everything was negative and all was good thankfully. My village of Mynyddcerrig [in Carmarthenshire, west Wales] had bunting and flags out, everyone in the working men's club that week enjoying themselves and people coming from everywhere. He has also had huge success as media pundit, as TV presenter, star of adverts and his warmth and affability always shining through.

Nigel Owens is a one-off, a top flight rugby referee who became the best in the world and remains one of the game’s most popular ambassadors.

As I blew my whistle I think the two sets of forwards were a little bit embarrassed, including Ward and Robshaw. No-one really wanted to say anything; even I was hesitating about asking Castres whether they wanted a scrum or lineout.We were all in fits of laughter in the changing room. Priceless. Imagine that one had been caught on the mic!”