Brace for card-fest to intensify

There have been five red cards and 17 yellow cards at this World Cup, the highest number ever since the first tournament in 1987.

Twenty-eight games have been played in Japan. There are still 20 to go and the confetti of colours will continue to be brandished at often bewildered players because World Rugby are committed to punishing contact against an opponent’s head, whether accidental or otherwise. There’s no going back.

Will the game suddenly become safer as a result? Probably not.

Rugby is a collision-based game of constantly moving parts played at high pace at the highest level. Contact with the head will never be removed.

This is not a criticism of World Rugby’s bid to improve player safety — the game’s ruling body has a responsibility to do so — but the reality is there will still be head injuries.

Another is that as a result of the crackdown, there will be a lot more players sent off in the knockout phase when intensity and desperation levels are heightened.

We can’t blame the officials because they’ve been left in no doubt as to how they should rule on tackle height but the difficulty for World Rugby now, apart from the glaring inconsistencies of the judiciary, is that there are few allowances for how the ball is carried into contact.

The reasons why neither Nepo Laulala nor Ofa Tuungafasi was red carded for high tackles during the All Blacks’ 71-9 victory over Namibia on Sunday was that the ball carrier was falling at the time of contact. That was the official “mitigating circumstance” described by referee Pascal Gauzere.

But had the ball carrier not been falling, the tackle would not have been high. It’s a Catch-22 situation which will no doubt be used as a defence by the finest legal minds money can buy.

As an aside, England’s Piers Francis must have employed one of the finest to escape a ban for his shoulder to the head of United States fullback Will Hooley, an ugly hit which looked very similar to Tomas Lavanini’s against Englishman Owen Farrell last weekend. The only difference was the Argentine was red carded and faces a ban of up to six weeks.

The other issue in terms of how the ball is being carried is the body height employed by tight forwards in particular. They go low because that’s how they’ve been taught. Pumas hooker Agustin Creevy leads with his head into virtually every contact.

That’s a problem. Australia’s Samu Kerevi was recently penalised for leading with his forearm. Will we get to a point where players cannot dip their heads?

Players also must use their arms to tackle, and fair enough, but if you swing an arm into contact, then you’re more likely to connect with a player’s head. It’s a bit of a pickle and there’s no easy solution for even one of the finest rugby minds in the game.

“I think the two yellow cards were fair under the guidelines we’ve got but it is tough,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said after the Namibia game.

“When a player is falling like that and you’re committed, there are going to be times when you make a connection, and I’m not sure how you avoid that, because if you don’t use your arms, then you’re going to be done for a no-arms tackle. It is very difficult.

“I think that’s why they’ve allowed the mitigating circumstances and it only becomes a yellow card. The powers-that-be have asked us to tidy it up and each team is doing their best but the circumstances are just about unavoidable and unfortunately that’s where our game is at the moment.”

Red or yellow — more cards are coming.

There will be a lot more players sent off in the knockout phase when intensity levels heighten.