The 20-minute red card will be used during the Rugby Championship after SANZAAR decided to reintroduce the law trial despite it being rejected by World Rugby for a global rollout.
The ruling has been used for the past three Super Rugby seasons and in last year’s Rugby Championship but appeared to be going nowhere after World Rugby’s high-performance committee voted against it being rolled out in a global trial, a necessary step for the law to be adopted. As a result, the full 80-minute red card was used in July Test tours.
By allowing red-carded players to be replaced after 20 minutes, southern hemisphere teams are continuing to push for its acceptance, claiming that the use of the law in the upcoming tournament, which kicks off on August 6, between Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina is crucial for the game's integrity. Australia coach Dave Rennie and England coach Eddie Jones are just two high-profile individuals involved in a law review group backing the trial.
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The optics of continuing to push the law trial - and even claiming it is being done to protect the integrity of the game - is questionable when 185 former players have issued legal proceedings against the sport's governing bodies over alleged negligence leading to their permanent injuries from brain damage. This pursuit of the 20-minute red card only serves to demonstrate the widening views between the two hemispheres.
The 20-minute red card is popular among SANZAAR nations but has little support among the European unions, who do not believe it provides a strong enough deterrent. But, despite not voting for a global trial, World Rugby has left the door open for future changes by allowing SANZAAR to go ahead in the Rugby Championship, with the governing body likely to try and implement similar laws in next season's Super Rugby.
“This is a great decision for The Rugby Championship and follows on from its application in Super Rugby,” SANZAAR boss Brendan Morris said. “As a group we firmly believe the integrity of international matches is very important and that wherever possible matches must be a contest of 15 versus 15.
“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.”
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