Nigel Owens: a tale of the whistle, the whisky and a shotgun
Gay referee has overcome dark days to reach the ultimate stage of controlling Rugby's World Cup final
If nobody is talking about Nigel Owens when the World Cup final ends, he will be "a very, very, very happy man".
Happiness has not always been easy for the 44-year-old Welshman who has reached the pinnacle of a referee's career: controlling a final at Twickenham between New Zealand and Australia.
Everyone knows these personal things, but that is okay, really, as it helps other people
Owens has been blowing the whistle in internationals for 10 years. He is known for keeping the game moving, his decisions are never questioned and he communicates well with players.
Owens' quips such as, "This is not soccer", to scrum halves who complain too much are rugby legend. Former Wales captain Eddie Butler said that in an age of improving referee standards Owens "is a pioneer".
Referees have not had an easy time at this World Cup, however, and Owens, a TV personality as well as respected match official, has asked dark questions of himself in the past.
Owens says that at the age of 26 he had considered committing suicide because he had kept his homosexuality a secret.
"I'd been fighting it for years, since I was 19. I came from a small community [in Carmarthenshire], which was probably a bit old-fashioned in the way I was brought up," he told the Daily Mail newspaper in 2008 a year after he came out.