BBC responds after viewers spot reference to Nigel Owens’ sexuality in Six Nations subtitles

Keen-eyed viewers picked up on the reference on Saturday.

The BBC has said that 'mistakes happen' when explaining why a reference to rugby referee Nigel Owens' sexuality appeared during Scotland's Six Nations win over England. A reference to Owens' sexuality was appeared in the 66th-minute of the game, with the subtitles reading, "yellow card. Nigel Owens is a gay penalty and yellow card." The subtitles were immediately corrected, reading 'Nigel Owens is saying penalty and yellow card.' The Welsh referee was at the time issuing a yellow card to England's Sam Underhill during the clash at Murrayfield. Responding to calls for an explanation, a BBC Spokesperson said:

“Our live subtitling service produces accuracy levels in excess of 98% but, as with all broadcasters, there are instances - particularly during live broadcasts - when mistakes happen. "On this occasion, the voice recognition subtitling software made an error which was spotted and corrected immediately."

In fairness to Owen, he certainly saw the funny said to the unfortunate mishap. Writing on Twitter, he said: "I must say I had a giggle when I saw this. I thought bloody hell this voice recognition is good. Shame it wasn't about 25yrs ago it would have helped me find out who I truly was sooner then. Mistakes happen so no worries at all on my behalf BBC it actually made me smile." https://twitter.com/Nigelrefowens/status/968604098957402115