Why a decision on 20-minute red cards has been put on the backburner

The controversial ‘halfway house’ punishment means some red card offences are dealt with by sending the offending player to the sin bin for 20 minutes. The offender is then able to be replaced on the field by a teammate off the bench when 20 minutes has elapsed.

It has attracted criticism, most notably from the French and Irish unions who believe it sends out the wrong message on player safety.

It is being trialled in the Autumn Nations Series and was seen twice over the weekend, including at Murrayfield where Scotland’s Scott Cummings saw an initial yellow card upgraded to a 20-minute red card during the first half of the home defeat by South Africa. Fiji’s Semi Radradra was also shown a 20-minute red card during his side’s win over Wales on Sunday.

The World Rugby Council met in Dublin on Thursday to decide whether a package of law trials will be adopted from next year as a global trial across all competitions, including the Six Nations. Council members voted in favour of four law trials but deferred a decision on 20-minute red cards.

“With cross-hemisphere international matches having only just begun, in line with the recommendation, the Council decided to delay consideration of the 20-minute red card trial until the conclusion of the Autumn Nations Series to enable further feedback and full data analysis to be considered,” said a statement from World Rugby.

The four law trials that will be adopted for all competitions from January 1 are: a 60-second conversion limit; a 30-second setup for lineouts; a play-on rule in uncontested lineouts when the throw is not straight and more scrum-half protection during scrums, rucks, and mauls.

Proposals for a global law trial to call a mark inside the 22-metre line at kick off and restarts and for single stop mauls did not receive the required 75 per cent support so will not proceed.

A revised Television Match Official (TMO) protocol was also approved as a global trial. Under the new protocol, the TMO has additional power to identify clear and obvious infringements in the final attacking passage of play before scoring (knock on, forward pass and in touch) and within the final two phases specifically (offside, maul obstruction and tackle complete). The final passage of play is defined as the passage of play since the last restart (if there has been no turnover in possession), or the passage of play since the last turnover in possession has taken place. This is the protocol currently operational in the Autumn Nations Series.

Scotland had a try chalked off against South Africa for a knock-on in the build-up which led to head coach Gregor Townsend questioning how many phases back the match officials had gone. World Rugby said the object of the various law trials was to speed the game up, increase ball-in-play time and make rugby more entertaining.