Recently retired referee Wayne Barnes has been involved in his fair share of controversial rugby moments, with Irish rugby at the heart of a handful of them, including Stephen Ferris' Six Nations yellow card in 2012 and 2007's 'The Battle of Bayonne'.
While he wasn't involved in last season's Champions Cup final - which saw Johnny Sexton have angry words with referee Jaco Peyper and his team after the match - Barnes has shared some strong opinions on the incident in his autobiography 'Throwing the Book'.
Wayne Barnes Makes Bold Claim On Johnny Sexton Ref Abuse
He makes the big claim that EPCR reneged on a commitment to keep the referees names out of the final report, and says Jaco Peyper's team were reluctant to participate with the investigation into Sexton's behaviour.
Further evidence that the authorities don't have referees' backs, and seem to be making stuff up as they go along, was the incident between Johnny Sexton and Jaco Peyper after the 2023 Champions Cup final, which La Rochelle won against Leinster.
Leinster's Sexton, who didn't play because he was injured, walked on to the pitch and abused Jaco and his touch judges, Karl Dickson and Christophe Ridley. You could clearly see him letting rip as Jaco was on the podium receiving his medal, and you didn't need to be a lip reader to know that was he was saying wasn't very pleasant, to put it mildly.
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20 May 2023; Jonathan Sexton of Leinster after the Heineken Champions Cup Final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
"So when asked, Jaco and his team said they didn't hear anything," Barnes continued.
"European Rugby didn't believe them, but Jaco and his team weren't prepared to put their names to any statements because they weren't confident that European Rugby would protect them.
"European Rugby promised them their names wouldn't be mentioned and said it would write a statement on their behalf (you'd be ripped apart in the criminal justice system for doing that), but when the time came to prosecute Sexton, their names and quotes were all over the transcripts of the judgement. (For the record, Sexton got a three-match ban, making him available for Ireland's opening World Cup game.) As you can imagine, Jaco and his team felt let down, and I don't blame them."
Barnes, who holds the honour of having refereed the most Test matches, has been particularly vocal on the issue of referee abuse, and has spoken about the horrific threats he and his family have received.
Judging by the actions of the EPCR, his belief that referee's do not get enough protection from governing bodies certainly holds weight.
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