I like him. He was persona non grata for a while after the ridiculous "ball's out" pen against Will Skinner, but since those days he has improved immeasurably.

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I spent a really good 3 hours with Will Skinner on the train from Geneva to Lyon prior to the final a couple of years ago. I raised that actual incident with him, and his response was that Barnes had warned him a couple of times prior to that, and in Wills view, that whilst not to the letter of the law, he actually deserved it!

Will explained that the refs have to make their decision whether they want to be everyones best mate or be aloof aka Mr Barnes. He still held him in very high regard. 

The good thing about those 3 hours was that Will asked us more questions then we did him and was really keen to understand the supporters point of view.

Top Bloke