SANZAAR HAVE CONFIRMED that the 20-minute red card law trial will be reintroduced for the 2022 Rugby Championship, which kicks-off on 6 August.

The law trial was previously implemented for the 2021 Rugby Championship, as well as the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Super Rugby competitions.

Under this law, a player who receives a red card can be replaced after 20 minutes.

SANZAAR CEO Brendan Morris said: “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.

TRC LAW TRIAL
SANZAAR will apply the 20-min Red Card law trial for the 2022 Championship - a sent off player can be replaced after 20 min. This trial will be a continuation of trial conducted in Super Rugby 2022 and TRC in 2021. #trc2022
Full details: https://t.co/k4gAHEeRv6 pic.twitter.com/LCmxcfmnDu

— TheRugbyChampionship (@SanzarTRC) July 27, 2022

“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.”

Red card law trial:

• 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.

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