He officiated the international between France and Australia in Toulouse in December 1971 and also refereed a number of Barbarians matches. He was touch judge in several international matches including the famous 1973 Barbarians v New Zealand game – and was the closest man on the pitch to Gareth Edwards when he scored ‘that’ try.
A former teacher at Abertillery Grammar-Technical School, Ernie enjoyed a successful career as a top flight rugby player before turning to refereeing. He played briefly for Newport, but spent most of his career with his home town club Abertillery and Ebbw Vale.
Ernie was a prolific points scorer and during his time at Ebbw Vale set points scoring records in 1949-50, 1950-51 and his 198 points in 1951-52 (198), made him the leading points scorer in Wales in the season Ebbw Vale were Welsh Champions, a record which he held until 1974-75 when it was broken by his son, former WRU Chief Executive Steve Lewis.
He became one of the leading outside halves in Wales and was a regular member of the Monmouthshire County side and was awarded his county “cap”. He played against Australia (1947) and New Zealand (1953) for a combined Abertillery & Cross Keys side, both games at Abertillery Park.
He took up refereeing in 1956 and quickly established himself as one of the leading referees in the game, the highlight being the international Test match.
Mr Lewis visited the Millennium Stadium in 2013 to view the new International Referees Board and celebrate his 90th birthday. His recollections that day of the France v Australia match were not all rosy: “It was the first of two Tests on the Australian tour of France. Unfortunately, there was a recent history of bad blood between the two sides and neither team wanted to play rugby on the day.
“It was not a comfortable place to be, and I had to deal with several unsavoury incidents. When I awarded an important penalty to the Aussies the crowd began to stir and when the game ended with France losing 13 – 11 I needed a police escort to get to the dressing room!”
After retiring as a referee, Ernie went on to become a WRU referee assessor and President of the Welsh Society of Rugby Referees.
Nigel Whitehouse, WRU National Match Officials manager said, “Ernie was one of the great characters in our game and was a hugely respected referee. When he became an assessor he nurtured many of Wales’ top referees as they came through the system. He will be sadly missed by us all and our thoughts are with the family at this time.”
Ernie’s son, former WRU Chief Executive Steve Lewis, said, “We have been overwhelmed by messages of condolence from around Wales and the whole of the rugby world and that has been a source of great comfort to us as a family.”
Ernie Lewis’ funeral will take place next Tuesday 4 August at 2pm at the Gwent Crematorium.
