International referee Wayne Barnes recounts in his autobiography Wayne Barnes : Throwing the Bookhow his heart ad right in the middle of the competition. Which did not prevent him from being on the whistle for the final between South Africa and New Zealand.
This is one of the hidden stories of the last World Cup. English referee Wayne Barnes had a turbulent time in his competition, which he recounts in his autobiography Wayne Barnes : Throwing the Book. In September 2023, while he was enjoying a running session in the streets of the French capital with two other referees, his heart rate skyrocketed abnormally. “When my heart rate started racing during a running session in Paris, I wasn’t too worried at first. Maybe I hadn’t slept well, maybe I hadn’t Didn’t eat enough at breakfast, maybe I drank too much coffee. Anyway, I thought my heart would return to normal if I calmed down a little.” But the referee reveals that his connected watch displays 230 beats per minute after 15 minutes of jogging. “To give you an idea, my resting heart rate is around 50 beats per minute. During a match, it can reach 175. My legs felt like soggy spaghetti, and I had trouble breathing. And four days later (on Sunday) I found myself refereeing the crucial pool match between Wales and Australia.”
“I feared my World Cup was over”
Already subject to heart problems, Wayne Barnes was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in 2009, following which he underwent ablation surgery. A few years later, his cardiologist Richard Schilling had to restart his heart when it could not regulate itself. “So I wondered if the same thing was happening again. And if I wasn’t scared to the point of saying ‘Shit, I’m going to die,’ I was worried that my fifth and final World Cup would be finished almost before it began. Barnes had already refereed Ireland-Tonga on September 16. He thought that by revealing his heart problem his superiors would forbid him from taking the whistle. “On the other hand, if I refereed the match, I was afraid of not being up to the task. I didn’t think I would collapse, but I was afraid of disappointing the players. […] My heart was speeding up and slowing down all day, but I decided to participate in the game. When I looked at my watch during my warm-up, it was already running at 180 bpm. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the rhythm would be restored before kick-off. Unfortunately, this was not the case.”
“I said to myself: here, I’m in trouble”
As soon as the kick-off has been given, the start of the match is very intense. “Three minutes into the game Wales took a throw-in and scrum-half Gareth Davies ran across the field to score a try. A start I could have done without as it required me to run about 50 meters I said to myself: “There, I’m in trouble…”. After a first half strewn with mistakes, the referee limited the damage and returned to the locker room. A film crew, which follows them during the World Cup, films. He asks them to go out once they have captured some images. “Once the camera crew had moved away, I said to my fellow referees – an all-English team consisting of Luke Pearce, Christophe Ridley and TMO Tom Foley –: “Okay, I have a little problem guys, my heart started racing, but it’s happened before and I’m sure everything will be fine. “”. Finally, the Welsh crushed the Australians and the international referee did not have to increase his efforts excessively. “If the match had been closer, I would have been in difficulty” he wrote, specifying that he did not drink his traditional debriefing beer in the locker room for the first time.
Richard Schilling, the last chance
“The next morning I woke up thinking my World Cup was probably over, which was a devastating feeling” reveals Barnes. Having difficulty refereeing the Welsh and Australians, he could not see himself returning to the field in these conditions and therefore thought that his World Cup would be over. But he had one last ace up his sleeve: an ace named Richard Schilling. On his day off on Wednesday, he rushes on a plane to London to meet his cardiologist. “Richard restarted my heart, and when I saw him again, he assured me that everything had gone well. He explained to me that my left ventricle was still enlarged and that it might be necessary to do a new ablation, but he also made it clear that I would be healthy for the rest of the tournament.”
Following this, Waynes Barnes was able to referee Scotland – Romania in complete safety. The next day, referee boss Joel Jutge summoned him to his hotel room and told him enthusiastically: “Wayne, we thought you were great. Congratulations, you’re going to referee the final…” – “Unless England qualify,” Barnes retorts with a smile. In the end, it was the Springboks and the New Zealanders who took part in the last meeting of the competition, and Waynes Barnes was able to finish in style. “Despite all the important decisions we made, things could have gotten very complicated for me if the bunker system hadn’t done most of the work. Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun playing. was an exceptional match in the superb Stade de France, and it was the best way to say goodbye.” All’s well that ends well!
