Daily Diary

Who’s the barrister in the black?

Posted 15/10/2007 by The Daily Diary

It’s well known that the rugby fields of England’s public schools have proved a particularly fertile breeding ground for legal talent, with many of the City top lawyers having hauled themselves up, bloodied and beaten, from the bottom of a ruck on more than one occasion.

(Although whether Eversheds Cardiff chief Alan Meredith is bragging about his own rugby credentials – as a former pro with Swansea RFC – in light of his countrymen’s abject exit from the ongoing World Cup is another matter.)

One who made the move in the opposite direction from litigation to line-outs is top international ref Wayne Barnes, who has played a starring role in the tournament alongside England's other brave battlers.

Barnes was a criminal defence barrister with Temple Gardens before turning his hand to refereeing, but may need some legal help of his own after earning the collective opprobrium of New Zealanders everywhere.

Barnes presided over the All-Blacks’ hapless 20-18 exit to host nation France – when the Englishman missed an apparently illegal forward pass (prohibited in egg-chasing, for the uninitiated) that led directly to Les Bleus’ winning score.

Barnes – highly rated as an official despite being only 28 – has even received death threats from irate Kiwis, although if the talk of those nutters who have threatened him is as empty as the All-Blacks’ claims to be tournament favourites, thankfully Barnes should be safe for a while yet.