No red card for Rainbow laws

THE PRO14 Rainbow Cup law variations could not only benefit the game but also grow a more fanfriendly experience.

Last weekend, South African sides played the first round of the Rainbow Cup SA competition, and there were a good few talking points that emerged from the domestic action.

There was the Stormers’ howdid-that-happen 33-30 defeat to the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium; there was Pieter-Steph du Toit’s impressive comeback; there were the pleasing performances from the Springbok players; that thunderstorm of cards in Cape Town … you get the picture. It was certainly not a dull opening weekend.

Apart from all that, another big feature at the weekend were the law variations that are being trialled during the Rainbow Cup. The rugby public have already had a taste of the new laws‚ which were already in use across Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby AU, but we got to see SA players adapt at the weekend. And there were some mixed reactions from coaches.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt – whose team played against a 13-man Stormers side at one stage – said that the red-card law allows teams to still produce a spectacle and added that he thinks it’s a good idea. Bulls coach Jake White, however, wasn’t as convinced, saying the law variations would “take some getting used to” after they had a try disallowed after Morne Steyn’s cross-kick, which led to a try for Madosh Tambwe, ruled out due to a wayward line-out throw before Steyn got his hands on the ball.

As part of the trials, teams losing a player to a red card are able to use a nominated substitute to replace the offender after a 20-minute period, while captains are allowed one challenge per match to review try-scoring and foul-play incidents, with the ability to look at any of the referee's decisions in the final five minutes. A drop-out can also be taken from anywhere on the goal line for 'held-up over the line', knock-ons that occur in goal, or when the ball is grounded by a defending player in the in-goal area after a kick through.

Despite the mixed reactions, I feel that these law variations address some of the game's biggest issues in recent years.

The red-card law is an answer to how these send-offs ruin contests as it does enough to ‘punish’ a team for the infringement by having them at a numerical disadvantage for 20 minutes (which is a very long time in a game), while it also ensures the game regains some kind of levelness once the infringing player has been replaced.

Also, how many times have we seen match-defining actions missed by the referee? The challenge comes in handy there, and although it’s something that can influence the flow of a game if done too often, the fact that each captain is only allowed one (and loses it if there’s nothing to it), cancels out that concern.

These laws will probably take some time to get used for some, but I’d say it can impact the game positively.