Stamp out homophobia in sport, says rugby ref Nigel Owens

The Rugby Football Union is investigating alleged homophobic and racial abuse of referee Nigel Owens during England's loss to New Zealand.

The Welsh official, 43, who is the first openly gay man to referee at the highest level, took charge of the Twickenham Test on 8 November.

The RFU was told of the abuse by a supporter who was sitting close to where the alleged incident took place.

"The RFU will take this seriously and deal with it," Owens said.

"It's important to stop this from getting a bigger problem in the game.

"As a referee it's not nice to have stuff like this getting back to me and if I was telling you it doesn't get me down or doesn't affect me I'd be lying because it does."

Owens was speaking to Oliver Hides on BBC Radio Wales' Morning Call programme.