Owens calls for red card clarification
Former Test referee Nigel Owens says World Rugby’s plan to introduce a 20-minute red card is a “kneejerk reaction” and doesn’t solve the issue of what constitutes a sending off.
Former Test referee Nigel Owens says World Rugby’s plan to introduce a 20-minute red card is a “kneejerk reaction” and doesn’t solve the issue of what constitutes a sending off.
World Rugby appears set to make a radical change to the set-piece laws that favours teams with a weaker scrum, affecting a core part of the Springboks’ World Cup double triumph.
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.
Tappe Henning, the Vodacom United Rugby Championship’s head of match officials, says World Rugby needs to be cautious when it comes to finding a compromise between the red card and protecting the integrity of having 15 players against 15.