The case of the missing cards
There has been a quiet but significant shift in the way rugby has been officiated in the past few months, and it has changed the nature of the Rugby Championship.
There have only been two yellow cards, and no reds, dished out in this year’s tournament.
That’s a remarkably low number with just four games left. In last year’s Rugby Championship 10 yellow cards and two red cards were issued.
Not only will this year’s tournament get nowhere near that figure (unless some mass brawls break out) it’s a complete 180 degrees from the June tests and most of this year’s Super Rugby.
Judicial officials have had so much spare time they’ve probably knocked a few numbers off their handicaps. So what has happened and why?
The first is probably the easiest to understand by looking at the numbers. As mentioned above, there were 10 yellows and two reds in 2017.
In 2016 there were even more – 15 yellow cards (but no reds).
Even in 2015, in a shortened competition due to the World Cup, there were six yellow cards.
The other thing that stands out is that the All Blacks, Argentina and Australia have apparently turned into angels this year.
Between them they have picked up zero yellow cards.
South Africa are the only team to have men sent to the bin – and the nature of those yellow cards tells its own story.
Both of their yellows were for killing the ball close to their own line – Eben Etzebeth against the Pumas and Willie le Roux against the All Blacks.
So what we have this year is nothing short of remarkable. It’s completely different to what we have become accustomed to.
Why has this change occurred?
You could argue that the teams have, in general, cleaned up their acts and that, specifically, the new guidelines around high tackles are changing behaviours.
There is probably an element of truth in that.
However, it’s only part of the story. An incident in the All Blacks v Springboks game in Wellington may also tell us what is going on.
In the passage of play before le Roux’s yellow card, Kieran Read cleans out Francois Louw around the head area with his shoulder.
Had this taken place during Super Rugby or the June tests – when officials were looking at exactly this sort of incident again and again – Read would have been given a yellow card, possibly a red.
Since then, however, there has been a well-documented pushback against ‘overofficiating’, with coaches from Steve Hansen, Tony Brown and Brad Thorn lining up to ask where the game is going.
The Rugby Championship has shown where the game has gone. What is happening on the field is largely staying on the field.
It is being refereed with a great deal of sympathy towards how coaches and players (and gnarly ex-players) would like it to be refereed.
You can appreciate the dangers here. We are surely not too far from the point where some might ask, ‘Hold on, are illegal acts just being ignored now?’
In fact, the Wallabies might already be at that point in relation to David Pocock’s treatment at the breakdown.
That is something the game’s administrators are no doubt aware of.
But for the time being it feels like the outcome of games has been put back in the hands of the players, rather than the officials.
Benjamin Fall, the Frenchman shown a red card for his clumsy collision with Beauden Barrett in June, probably didn’t realise it at the time, but he – and a few others – might have indirectly changed the course of the game.
‘‘What is happening on the field is largely staying on the field.’’