It's time to revamp the rugby red card ruling
Watching Blues player Hayden Triggs justifiably receiving a red card against the Stormers over the weekend got me thinking. There's something wrong in seeing…
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I have to agree with RedandBlack. The red card is a blight on the game and robs everyone of the contest we were expecting. Creating an uneven contest by sending offending players off may have been OK in the amateur days of rugby but more than 20 years into professional rugby we should be able to come up with something better.
My solution would be that red carded players can be replaced. I know people claim that would lead to more red card type incidents because players would not fear the consequences of their actions on their team. The answer to that is to hit the sent off players much harder with suspensions and fines.
Super Rugby has increasingly embraced a more American sports philosophy with the use of conferences etc. Many American sports replace players who have been sent off (baseball, basketball, ice hockey). The players are punished, their teams lose the service of said player, yet the public is not denied a true contest.
A low scoring sport like soccer is rarely ruined by a sending off. Simply the team tactics are adjusted and in most cases the game remains competitive.
There is a lot of negative comment around about the structure of Super Rugby. This measure would lessen the frustration of seeing a much anticipated game go down the gurgler because of the foolish actions of one man – usually a player but sometimes the referee.
Sending a player off always ruins a game of rugby