Red-card Law to be retained for Rugby Championship

Sanzaar have decided to unilaterally introduce the controversial “Red card law” for trial in this year’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship, where teams who get a player sent off have the option of replacing him after 20 minutes off the field.

The law, which was trialled in Super Rugby Pacific earlier this year, saw a flurry of red cards and no real change in player behaviour, and it is strange that the law is to be introduced with the full backing of all four rugby nations for the Rugby Championship.

Of course nobody likes to see a lopsided contest, or a game ruined by red cards, and referee and TMO consistency with regards what constitutes a red card should probably be more in the spotlight, but the unintended consequence is that teams can get away with a red card and not suffer a game-altering event with the introduction of the law.

There are arguments to be made on both sides of the trialled law and the flurry of red cards in Super Rugby Pacific hardly helped the matter. But World Rugby, who face a bunch of lawsuits from players suffering with dementia, have decided to make the game safer and the head high shot is already a massive talking point in a game of collisions when a split second decision may get things wrong.

The law was trialled in last year’s Rugby Championship but had little effect on the big games and teams obviously believe that a 15 v 15 contest is greater than any possible negative effect it can have.

While some laws have changed the game - the 50-22 and goalline drop-out have been successes thus far - the debate still rages on the red card law.

The announcement came overnight via press-release from Sanzaar, who believe it will play a positive part in the Rugby Championship.

“SANZAAR has confirmed today that it will be reintroducing the 20-minute Red Card law trial for The Rugby Championship (TRC) 2022 in which a Red-Carded player can be replaced after 20 minutes,” the release read.

“This trial, which all four SANZAAR National Unions fully support, would be a continuation of the law trial conducted throughout Super Rugby competitions in 2020, 2021 and 2022 as well as The Rugby Championship in 2021.”

SANZAAR CEO Brendan Morris commented, "This is a great decision for The Rugby Championship and follows on from its application in Super Rugby. All the SANZAAR national unions - Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa - are fully behind the extension of the red-card law trail. As a group we firmly believe the integrity of international matches is very important and that wherever possible matches must be a contest of fifteen versus fifteen.”

"Within the context of the games' laws, SANZAAR believes that a 20-minute Red Card allows for a significant deterrent to deliberate acts of foul play, while it also protects the contest of fifteen on fifteen, which is what our unions, broadcasters and fans are telling us is important."

"SANZAAR stands alongside World Rugby’s important work on managing foul play and player welfare and will conduct a formal research project across the 2022 TRC period with all comparative findings to be shared with World Rugby at the end of the season. The aim is to gather the necessary information that allows the 20-minute red card trial to be accepted into the full laws of the game in the future."

“This season we are very excited to be bringing international rugby back to fans across all of our home territories for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic with an innovative new mini-tours format as we are committed to exploring ways to continually improve the competition," added Morris.

How the Red Card Law Trial works:

• If a player is red-carded he may be replaced after 20 minutes by another player. The 20 minutes from when a player is red-carded to when they may be replaced is measured as “game time”. This follows the same measurement of time already in place for a yellow-carded player in the sin bin (sin bin clock is stopped when the game clock is stopped).

• A player receives a yellow card and is sin-binned for 10 minutes. If the same player, then returns to the field after serving their 10 minutes suspension and subsequently receives a second yellow card, which equates to an automatic red card. After a further 20 minutes the red carded player can be replaced.

• A player who has been tactically replaced can return to the field to replace a red-carded player. Note if a team has unused replacements (eg #23) still sitting on the bench it does not have to use them to replace a red-carded player before the use of players who have already been substituted tactically (eg #12).

• Any red-carded player cannot return to the field under any circumstance.