Nigel Owens: The gesture from Owen Farrell and Kieran Read and World Cup farewell that brought tears to my eyes

After eight weeks away at the World Cup, I will be flying home on Monday. I have enjoyed every single minute.

I'm a bit of a homebird and do miss those close to me so, yes, I am looking forward to returning after close on two months in Japan. That's only natural. My partner has been out here with me for the past couple of weeks, so that has helped.

But I will come back to Wales enriched by a truly wonderful experience out here. A fabulous World Cup, with some brilliant rugby played in front of sell-out stadiums and millions of TV viewers. Rugby has been, and is, very much the winner.

I have one last official duty out here, which is to act as fourth official for Saturday's final between England and South Africa in Yokohama. The role involves checking the substitutions are correct, the yellow card timings on the sidelines, that everything is in order should there be uncontested scrums and so on.

So, having been privileged to referee the 2015 final, I will be there in my kit again on the sidelines, offering full support to Jerome Garces who will take charge this time.

I'm so pleased for Jerome. He's the first Frenchman to get the biggest match of the lot, has been an excellent servant to the game and fully deserves the opportunity. A great referee, but more importantly a great man too.

I guess I know how he will have been feeling this week, how excited he will be, what a wonderful honour it is to be told you are refereeing the World Cup final, and I'm sure he will do a fine job.

It's Jerome's last match before he retires to take up a role in charge of French referees in the Top 14, so it's the best possible way for him to bow out.

I don't plan to hang up my own whistle just yet and hopefully will get more Test matches. There is no age limit on international referees, so to speak, it's down to fitness and performance. Provided my fitness is OK, I'm still enjoying refereeing and my reviews are good - which they have been in this World Cup - I won't be stopping just yet.

Derek Bevan told me just recently that you're a fair time retired so I intend to enjoy my best in every game I referee and when the time comes then I will have no regrets. But while I still hope to carry on in the international arena, I'm realistic enough to know that the England versus New Zealand semi-final last weekend was probably my last World Cup match.

If so, as with Jerome on Saturday, I can't really ask to go out on much more of a high. It was a brilliant game of rugby, played between two superb teams in a wonderful sporting manner. And, thankfully, people were talking about the rugby afterwards, not refereeing decisions. Which tends to show you have done your job well.

There was also a lovely moment at the end of the game when, unbeknown to me, my TMO Marius Jonker had arranged for Owen Farrell and Kieran Read, the respective captains, to sign the match ball for me.

Marius and my touch judges held a little presentation in the changing room when they handed over the ball. I can tell you there was a little tear in my eyes, I got a bit emotional, knowing it was my final World Cup game and this was such a lovely note upon which to finish.

Owen and Kieran had each written 'Best wishes Nige.' They are a credit to the sport, two top quality players, but who are also brilliant captains and are impressive characters on and off the pitch. From my own experience as a referee, you rarely get a moment's trouble with either of them. Very dignified individuals, great role models.

As I write this column in my hotel room I have the ball they signed next to me. I will bring it back to Wales, let it go on display at Pontyberem RFC and Mynyddcerrig Workingmen's Club for a while, then probably donate it to one of the charities I'm involved with.

That semi-final was a truly incredible occasion to be part of. You just sensed you were in the middle of something special even before kick-off when England formed that V shape for the haka. A spine-tingling moment, I could sense the passion down there on the pitch.

It was something I needed to keep an eye on, but fortunately it didn't turn ugly and I didn't have to get involved, apart from telling the few English players in front of me to make sure they kept it respectful. In my view they did.

But it was a precursor to what followed, an epic 80 minutes of rugby when the two sides went absolute hammer and tongs at one another. The ball in play time was 42 minutes, which is high for Test rugby where the average is around the mid-30s mark, so that shows the intensity of the game.

I can let you into a little secret here: I felt my calf go in the 28th minute and needed treatment for it at half-time. I got through the rest of the game, but it was quite painful by the end and I had to limp off.

Unfortunately, I knew then I wouldn't have been fit to referee or run the line in the remaining two matches, even if selected. Fortunately my next match is not until the weekend of November 16-17 when I'm dong Newport versus Pontypridd in the Welsh Premiership. I will also have a couple more games to get me ready in time for Wales versus the Baa-Baas at the Principality Stadium at the end of the month.

Despite the injury, I guess it was my experience as a referee that helped get me through the semi-final. Knowing where to stand at key points meant the amount of running I had to do was more limited, so the pain became a little more bearable.

The two sets of players helped, mind, with how incredibly disciplined they were. There was only one penalty I had to award in the first 21 minutes and only six in total for the first half. I think they knew boundaries I had set at the breakdown at the beginning. Occasionally, in that second half, the players would look up at me and if I shook my head, or gave a wag of the finger, they knew they had to get out of there. And more often than not they invariably did, without transgressing.

Look, don't get me wrong, I would have gone off if I really needed to. I would never have disrespected the players or the sport by carrying on when I knew I shouldn't have. But it didn't quite get to that point and the adrenaline of the occasion helped me overcome the pain barrier.

That said, there was a time around the 60 minutes mark when I thought I'd have to leave the field. But I dug in and carried on through, with no-one knowing I was injured apart from myself and the physio. Given I knew this was my last World Cup match, there was no way I was finishing on a low.

I guess, just like the players, being involved in so many high intensity matches over such a short period of time in this World Cup had taken its toll on my body. That's what a World Cup is about: it really is the pinnacle and some of the matches out here have been real spectacles and, indeed, enjoyable challenges to officiate. Top class rugby, played at an incredible pace. Six matches in the middle and three on the touchline in a short period of five weeks is quite a heavy load on an ageing body like mine. In the end, it can take its toll on even us referees!

Despite the calf injury, I left the ground on a high. It's strange, but I went from that buzz to the low of watching Wales go out of the tournament the following day. It was a rare chance for me to go and watch my own country play. A group of us caught a train to the ground and the 20-minute walk from the station to the stadium, with tens of thousands of fans milling around and in good spirits, made you realise you were ready for something special again.

Well, it should have taken 20 minutes but it was more like an hour and 20 by the end for a number of reasons. Firstly my calf was playing up so I had to go slowly. Secondly, people stopped for photos, or for a chat.

"Great performance yesterday, Nige," some would say. "Why are you limping, Nige?" others would ask.

And limping I most certainly was because of the injured calf. That walk was quite painful, believe me, and I had to drag one foot behind the other.

But I'm always happy to stop and talk. This camaraderie is what helps make our sport so special and I would never wish to be aloof or anything like that. So if the journey to our seats inside the ground took more time than it should have done, so be it.

The match itself perhaps wasn't the best in terms of dynamic running, but it was tense, exciting and close right to the end. Another cracking semi-final. When Josh Adams scored that try and Leigh Halfpenny converted to make it 16-16, I jumped up to celebrate.

I've said before, and I say it again, when you are a referee you are completely impartial. That's the way you are trained to do your job. But if we're not working, each of us understandably has our own affiliation to our own country.

When Halfpenny nailed that kick I really thought Wales would go on to win, but the Springboks fought back again and in the end emerged as winners. It was a match that could have gone either way, neither team deserved to lose, but I guess one had to and unfortunately that was Wales.

Looking down at the Welsh players and coaching staff, many of whom I know really well, I felt for them. They had put in so much effort and had fallen at this stage, perhaps the most agonising one of the lot.

As a Welshman I was gutted myself, so imagine how the team must have felt.

So in the space of 24 hours I had gone from the high of walking away from my own semi-final, presented with a signed match ball and little tear of emotion in my eye, to the low of leaving the same ground despondent, knowing Wales had been agonisingly knocked out in a game I was really optimistic they would win.

But that's rugby, these things happen. Wales and New Zealand will bounce back, while England and South Africa will deservedly contest what should be a superb final.

I look forward to my own small role out there as the fourth official on the sidelines in what will be my final bit of World Cup action. But hopefully it won't be the end for me and I do want to be involved in the Six Nations.

Good luck to Jerome Garces out in the middle. I will be there to help him in any way that I can.