‘The Game will Never Recover’: Austra
An Australian powerbroker’s warning to World Rugby that an overturned red card in this year’s Six Nations was an existential threat to the game has paved the way for Super Rugby’s foul play system to be used at this year’s World Cup.
Rugby Australia on Wednesday confirmed reports in French media that the game’s global bosses are looking at using the “on report” system being trialled in Super Rugby at the World Cup in September. The move, flagged by World Rugby referees boss Joel Jutge in Midi Olympique, would be a massive shake up at short notice for the game, which usually puts a yearlong moratorium on major law changes before a World Cup.
But it appears Freddie Steward’s overturned red card in the IrelandEngland match last month prompted a major rethink. A strongly worded note from a high-ranking World Rugby official, Australia’s Brett Robinson, to his chairman, chief executive and high-performance manager, rammed home the need for change.
“I just said to them, ‘This could happen in a World Cup final and
I don’t think the game would ever recover from that, from a reputational standpoint’,” Robinson said.
Steward was sent off just before half-time in the Six Nations clash after his elbow made contact with Ireland fullback Hugo Keenan’s head.
An independent disciplinary committee overturned the red card four days later. The decision put northern hemisphere rugby in meltdown over the potential impact the sendoff had on the match. Ireland led 10-6 when Steward left the field, and went on to win 29-16.
As former England greats and media pundits criticised the controversy in public, Robinson and his New Zealand counterpart Bart Campbell, who both sit on World Rugby’s powerful executive committee, went hard internally.
The pair had argued unsuccessfully for World Rugby to adopt 20-minute red cards in time for this year’s World Cup, but kept agitating for the governing body to look at the foul play protocol used in Super Rugby.
Under that system, created by