SUPER RUGBY WILL implement a new ‘yellow card upgrade’ system this year that allows TMOs to raise the sanction from a yellow card to a red card during a game.
After referees have sent a player to the sin bin, a Television Match Official will have an eight-minute window to review the incident and decide whether it warrants being upgraded to a red card.
The new initiative – which was discussed on today’s episode of Rugby Weekly Extra, a podcast for members of The42 - is part of Super Rugby’s bid to speed the game up, including by avoiding extended on-pitch reviews of incidences of foul play.
Super Rugby will still operate its 20-minute red card policy, meaning that even if a player’s yellow card is upgraded to red, their team will be able to replace them after the 20-minute window.
However, Super Rugby referees will be able to permanently red card players for “deliberate foul play,” in which case the player cannot be replaced after 20 minutes.
World Rugby says that there will be a second TMO at each game to allow reviews of yellow cards to take place while the other TMO tracks the live action.
Speaking on Rugby Weekly Extra, former Ireland and Melbourne Rebels performance analyst and coach Eoin Toolan welcomed the change.
“I think it’s innovative. They’re trying to find a way to not take away from the spectacle, which has been a massive gripe in this part of the world,” said Sydney-based Toolan.
“Secondly, it’s trying to ensure that player welfare is paramount and we can review those instances without taking away from the momentum of the game.
“It’s innovative, it’s positive, so let’s so how it works. You need those two sets of eyes – one reviewing the yellow card incidences in case they need to be escalated to red, then the other person obviously keeping an eye on what’s happening live in games.
“Operationally, it’s important how it’s actually escalated to a red card. Does the referee brandish a red card to make the team and individual aware that he’s gone for 20 minutes? It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
“I’ve been an advocate of the 20-minute red card, I quite like it. You just have to ensure that the post-game repercussions for foul play are severe. The really poor technical offences in terms of not lowering body height, direct contact to the head, we’ve got to really get that out of the game. Longer bans will ensure players will have to change their habits, otherwise they’re going to suffer in terms of their careers by not being able to play and get paid.
“I think this is a step in the right direction. The spectacle can’t be overly influenced by the intervention of the TMO, so this is one way of circumnavigating that.”
However, Toolan is hopeful that referees don’t simply leave all responsibility for difficult foul play decisions to TMOs.
“I hope there are no unintended consequences from the fact that the referee might cop out in certain instances, just go to yellow and have an over-reliance on the TMO,” said Toolan.
“That then makes the TMO even more of a custodian of the game. They need to be dead sure they’re making the right decision, so you don’t want this to be a mechanism for referees abdicating responsibility. They’ve got to referee it how they see it.
“But for ones like the Uini Atonio one (his high tackle against Ireland) last weekend… if Wayne Barnes was in the comfort of the TMO truck and had more time on his hands to review it, I can’t but imagine he would have upgraded that to a red card.”
Super Rugby will also trial another law whereby defensive scrum-halves can’t advance past the tunnel of scrums.
That means defending scrum-halves will no longer be able to hassle attacking scrum-halves and number eights at the back of the scrum, which is a potentially big change.
Toolan and host Murray Kinsella discussed that tweak on today’s podcast, while they also spoke at length about Ireland’s impressive opening fortnight in the Six Nations, as well as taking stock of where the other five teams sit after the first two rounds of action.
To get access to The42 Rugby Weekly Extra, which comes out every Monday with Gavan Casey, Bernard Jackman, and Murray Kinsella, as well as every Wednesday with Eoin Toolan, become a member of The42 at members.the42.ie
