SA Rugby’s support of the New Zealand-driven 20-minute red card makes little sense in the context of the changes that have happened at amateur and professional level in South Africa. DYLAN JACK writes.

The law, which has been a regular feature in Super Rugby since 2020, allows a team to replace a red-carded player after 20 minutes.

Sanzaar, seemingly driven by the Super Rugby faction, are intent on making the law a permanent part of international rugby.

Speaking to Stuff.co.nz, Sanzaar’s Australian chief executive Brendan Morris said that the law will go to a vote at the next World Rugby council meeting in May, needing a 75% majority to be pushed through.

Morris said that if pushed through, the law could be accompanied by tougher off-field sanctions.

Forgive me if I take that with a pinch of salt, given that Sanzaar’s independent panel gave Jordie Barrett a two-week tap on the wrist for this tackle:

Barrett seems to have been the unlucky one, given that Moana Pasifika’s Nigel Ah Wong had his red card chalked off despite putting in a tackle that would make Brian Lima blush.

It appears that the heavily debated trial will be in place during this year’s Rugby Championship. SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer confirmed as much after the governing body held its official awards ceremony on Thursday night.

“We, as Sanzaar, are looking forward to bring it in place for the Rugby Championship. It’s a thing we as SA Rugby support and believe that a red card spoils the match if you have to play with 14 men.

“We fully understand there has to be a punishment, but we feel one should punish the player, not the team,” he said.

“I was recently told that whenever you have the ‘spectacle’ of 14 men playing against 15, there’s just a 3% chance for the 14-man team to win the game.

“It’s not good for the game and it’s not good for spectators. We will support the 20-minute red card vote.”

One wonders where Oberholzer got the above statistic. According to Opta Stats, 29% of teams shown a red card after the 60th minute went on to win the game, compared to 41% of teams shown a red in the opening 20. That’s a vast difference, from what SA Rugby’s CEO has been told.

For a moment, let’s debunk the “red cards ruin matches” line, because Oberholzer isn’t the first and won’t be the last to throw it out there.

In the 2023 World Cup, there were a total of eight red cards. This was across 48 matches in one of the longest-running tournaments to date, that seemingly crossed seasons in France.

Only three of those red cards were handed out to players from tier-one nations. One went to England’s Tom Curry in a game that the Red Roses won against Argentina.

Ethan de Groot became the first New Zealand player to see red in a 71-3 victory over Namibia.

All Blacks captain Sam Cane then become the first player to be sent off in a World Cup final, an enthralling match New Zealand could actually have won had Richie Mo’unga or Jordie Barrett converted their kicks at goal.

None of those matches at the World Cup were “ruined” because of a red card. Simply put, red cards don’t ruin matches. They very rarely have. In fact, they make games more captivating, to see whether the team down to 14 can do something tactically to make up for their deficit.

More concerningly, though, is that SA Rugby’s stance on the 20-minute red card completely contradicts its stance on the tackle height rule change.

Last November, SA Rugby decided to officially join the global movement and lower the official tackle height at amateur level (for clubs, universities and schools) from 2024.

This is what then Springbok director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said in SA Rugby’s official press release announcing the change:

“Whether we like it or not, at some stage the laws are going to change worldwide around tackle-height, so we need to be part of the solution and not having to play catch-up after the laws have already been made.”

If I was a schools or club rugby coach who put in hours of work to change my players’ tackle technique, only to read that SA Rugby actually supports minimizing the red card, I would be fuming.

Keep in mind, this is the same Erasmus that coaches a Springbok team that was the best-disciplined defensive team at the last World Cup, crucial to defending their title.

In total, the Springboks made 972 tackles at the 2023 World Cup – over 100 more than second-ranked England. The two-time world champions didn’t get a single red card. Don’t tell me that it’s not possible.

In the biggest game of his career, 2m tall Pieter-Steph du Toit made a record-breaking 27 tackles. Not a single one of those was yellow card worthy, let alone red card. Don’t tell me that the laws are the problem.

The Springboks took the tackle laws seriously and changed their behaviour, trained properly and proved that you can win rugby’s biggest prize by doing so – even if you have some mighty opponents ahead of you. New Zealand didn’t and proved that sticking to the old methods can get you into heaps of trouble, no matter how skilled you are with the ball.

New Zealand’s drive for the 20-minute red card seems to come out of a desire to minimize the sanction for rugby league-style headshots.

But given how good the Springboks have become defensively, and the drive to lower the tackle height, SA Rugby’s support makes little sense. Perhaps it is to cosy back up to New Zealand and by extension Sanzaar, given that the CVC private equity deal, and with it, a potential move to the Six Nations, is off the table.

However, SA Rugby need to be the older brother in this relationship. Rugby is entertaining enough, without 20-minute red card gimmicks. The Springboks are leading the way for aggressive but safe defending. The decision to join the amateur rugby global law trial was another excellent one, which will ensure South Africa stays on the forefront of any changes that happen in professional rugby.

There’s absolutely no need to spit in the face of those ideals to keep the tackle-crazy Kiwis happy.

Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images

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