Ardie Savea and Codie Taylor with referee Wayne Barnes during the Rugby union World Cup XV final match South Africa Springboks v New Zealand All Blacks.
Former referee Wayne Barnes has detailed how he secretly underwent heart surgery during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The Englishman officiated the showpiece event as the Springboks emerged victorious courtesy of a 12-11 win over the All Blacks in the final.
However, before reaching that stage, Barnes left the tournament during the pool stages in order to undergo heart surgery in between games.
He revealed as much in an extract from his book Wayne Barnes: Throwing the Book where he explained the events leading up to his decision to book an early flight back to the United Kingdom.
It is not the first time that Barnes has had heart issues as in 2009, he had an ablation operation after he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.
In his book, he wrote that he feared that he had the same issue after noticing that his “heart rate started going through the roof during a running session.”
“Training with [my fellow officials] Karl Dickson and Christophe Ridley is enough to give an old man a cardiac arrest. Karl only retired from playing a few years ago, Christophe is barely into his thirties,” an extract from his book published in the Telegraph read.
“So when my heart rate started going through the roof during a running session [at the Rugby World Cup] in Paris, I wasn’t overly concerned at first. Maybe I hadn’t slept well, maybe I hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast, maybe I’d drunk too much coffee. Whatever it was, I thought my heart would go back to normal if I just took things a little bit easier.”
This all occurred after Barnes had officiated Ireland’s pool game against Tonga and in what was his final World Cup tournament appearance as he planned to hang up the whistle, he was hellbent on making sure that was not the final international match that he refereed.
He added that he was not even going to mention it to his wife Polly but she quickly noticed that he was not well upon arriving in Paris, saying: “You’re not well. What’s wrong?”
Barnes would not let his bosses or fellow officials know about his concerns and went on to officiate the pool stage match between Wales and Australia when he would notify his assistants at half-time.
“I decided I was going to do 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 it would rectify itself before kick-off. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I thought, ‘Oh s—, I’m in trouble here…’
“I limited my running as much as possible for the rest of the first half, which both teams made easier for me by giving loads of penalties away, but I knew I had to tell my fellow referees during the break.”
He added: “Luckily, Wales hammered the Aussies 40-6, and I didn’t have to make any match-defining decisions. And far from being disappointed with my performance, the selectors said it was as good as I’d ever refereed.
“I didn’t have a beer during the debrief in the changing room, which was the first time that had ever happened. That was also the first time I’d ever answered the phone from the changing room immediately after the match; Polly rang and asked if I was OK, to which I replied, “Not really.”
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Barnes wrote that he believed that his World Cup was “probably over” when waking up the next morning but he played his trump card, his doctor Richard Schilling.
He called Schilling and explained how he was feeling before sharing the data on his Apple watch.
“He replied saying my heart was in tachycardia again, but that he could see me in London the following day. He made it sound as if it was nothing more than a cold, which put my mind at rest,” Barnes wrote.
“As luck would have it, Wednesday was our day off, so I booked myself a 6am flight and was back in London before breakfast. I shaved my chest at the request of the nurses and got all garbed up when Richard appeared with the anaesthetist.”
He added: “While I was out for the count, Richard restarted my heart, and when I saw him again, he told me it had all gone to plan. Richard told me my left ventricle was still enlarged, that he might have to perform another ablation somewhere down the line, but that I’d be OK for the rest of the tournament.
“I had decided not to tell the bosses what was going on because I thought they might panic, and they’d have had every right to stand me down.
“After all, if a player told their coach that they’d just had a heart operation under general anaesthetic, it’s highly unlikely they’d let them play a game a few days later.”
The Englishman would go on to officiate Scotland’s 84-0 thumping of Romania as well as Ireland’s defeat to New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with his performances earning the honour of officiating the final, which was ultimately his 111th and final Test match.
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