Rugby card change? How TMOs could call cards at World Cup

By Charlie Morgan

World Rugby is exploring an innovative law change that would mean yellow cards being upgraded to reds by television match officials at this year’s World Cup, Telegraph Sport understands.

The move would alter the handling of controversial dismissals such as Freddie Steward’s for England against Ireland last weekend. The governing body will make a decision over the next two months after exploring logistical hurdles and consulting stakeholders, including players and coaches.

It is understood there is a growing reluctance from referees to give red cards for “grey area” incidents at the World Cup in the wake of Steward’s sending off. The new law could help reduce these instances for the on-field officials.

England’s full-back was dismissed on the brink of half-time in Dublin following a high-speed clash with Hugo Keenan in which Steward turned to protect himself and inadvertently made contact with his opposite number’s head.

Initially brought in to shorten stoppages while the on-field officials confer with their television match official, this off-field upgrade system could also ensure red cards are not branded hastily.

Should this law, which is being trialled in the Super Rugby Pacific competition, be adopted for the World Cup there would be one major change. In the trial, yellows have been upgraded to a 20-minute red card with the offending player replaced by a team-mate if the TMO deems the offence serious enough. At the World Cup, however, there would be only yellow cards or traditional, permanent red cards.

World Rugby has been enthused by initial reaction to the Super Rugby Pacific trial and would be happy to roll it out further at -relatively short notice because it would not need players or coaches to make any material alterations to their World Cup preparation.

One criticism of the Super Rugby trial has been that any upgrade has not always been obvious to spectators at the ground. World Rugby will be eager to address this.

A source, who officiated in this Six Nations and attended a World Rugby meeting between international coaches and referees on Monday, revealed the incident had split opinion at the top of the sport.

There is a growing sense that officials, as well as decision-makers at World Rugby, do not want World Cup matches to hinge on similarly divisive red cards.

”There is a feeling going into the World Cup that we clearly don’t want games decided on incidents like that when there is so much grey around it,” said the source.

”Would that [the Freddie Steward incident] be a red again? Probably not, because it splits opinion so much and is so potentially decisive in the outcome of the game.”

World Rugby is aiming to aid officials with a background “calibration process”, under which the ex-players and coaches who developed the head contact process, such as former New Zealand centre Conrad Smith and Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, review incidents every three weeks and circulate a document detailing best practice. Chris Quinlan, the head of judiciary at World Rugby, is also involved in this exercise.

However, it is understood that at last week’s meeting in Heathrow, decision-makers were split over the correct outcome in the Steward incident. The advent of the HCP, launched in 2021, means referees must be “very bold” to judge an on-field collision to be deemed “a rugby incident”.

It was stressed that Jaco Peyper followed protocol and did not “pluck a card out of thin air”. Once the HCP is implemented by officials, a sending-off or sending to the sin-bin is the most likely outcome.

”As referees we need to be absolutely sure that there is no fault on behalf of the defender and that his actions were completely unavoidable to go down the ‘no foul play’ route,” suggested the source.

“A lot of us could understand the calls to go with no foul play but I’m not sure we would have been comfortable doing that because of the emphasis around protecting players’ heads.”

The source also underlined the pressure that Peyper would have been under, highlighted by the disciplinary hearing that retrospectively rescinded Steward’s sanction from a red to a yellow card. Peyper used the phrase “in the current climate” upon explaining his decision, and it was outlined that “we all know that if a player is not in control of what they are doing, they run the risk of being penalised”.

”What we’ll find is that the more incidents we have in the lead up to the World Cup, the clearer we can be on what is expected of our officiating,” said the source.

”With hindsight, the judgment ruled that a yellow card was sufficient but we need to acknowledge, in [the Steward] one, that it was a very rare scenario. We don’t get a decision that could have three potential outcomes very often.”

The independent disciplinary committee found Steward had committed an act of foul play, a charge that the player denied, yet downgraded the punishment because of “sufficient mitigating factors including the late change in the dynamics and positioning of the opposing player which should have resulted in the issue of a yellow card rather than a red card”.

”Rugby is so grey,” said the official. “We have around 300 tackles a game, so there would have been 4,500 over the course of the Six Nations. We’re now talking about one of them. The more things crop up, the more guidance we will get.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission