Lia’s Red Card Warning to World Rugby
a working group of top coaches, referees and administrators from New Zealand and Australia, a referee can issue a yellow card for an act of foul play, sending the player from the field and resuming play. The television match official may then look at two replays of the incident and use the next eight minutes to either upgrade the card to a 20-minute red or reaffirm the 10-minute penalty.
Play continues, allowing the game to move on, while pressure is taken off the on-field referee to make the correct call within seconds or minutes.
The trial has had hiccups, including last week’s yellow card for Reds second-rower Angus Blyth who, some critics argued, should not have been replaced after 20 minutes.
Blyth was later suspended for three weeks by the match review committee; lending credence to the argument his on-field offence – a dangerous tackle on Brumbies winger Corey Toole – warranted a full red.
Under the trial laws, a yellow can be upgraded to a full send-off but the system’s architects feel that two video replays of an incident may not be enough for the official to make that call. In Blyth’s case, he was suspended in a subsequent review, while the integrity of the game as a contest of 15 on 15 stayed intact.
Robinson confirmed that World Rugby had agreed in March to look at using a version of this trial in time for September’s World Cup. As it is not a law change, and only changes the way the laws are managed, there was an argument it could be pushed through earlier than the game’s usual consultation periods require.
Rugby Australia boss Andy Marinos described the plan as “really progressive”.
“The card interpretation has taken a bit of calibration,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of on-field yellows that have either gone to offfield reds or stayed off-field yellows and then gone through a judicial process and gone into red. I think that’s good. That shows there is a system and a safety net that can be calibrated.
“They certainly are thinking about it and I think it’s really progressive.
“World Rugby’s Phil Davies, the head of high performance, is out in Australia the next couple of weeks, so we’ll certainly engage with them and see where their headspace is at.”