Fifteen vs Eleven! It's happened before in Test rugby

It was a game seemingly like no other, one watched in disbelief by the 54,678 present at the Optus Stadium in Perth and the millions watching on devices at home.

Australia’s 42-38 win over the world champions Springboks was remarkable in many ways, not least for the four yellow cards received by the Wallabies in a chaotic seven-minute spell between the 68th and 75th minutes.

As our man on the spot, Finn Morton, reported, the Wallabies went down to 13 after yellow cards in quick succession to Harry Wilson and Ryan Lonergan, before Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and then Hunter Paisami joined them in the over-crowded sin bin.

For three minutes, it was 15 v 11, with the numerically challenged Wallabies hanging on for dear life as the Springboks used the free space to first fashion a try for Morne van den Berg and then fellow replacement, Ox Nche, when Wilson and Lonergan had come back on.

Australia had previously had three players yellow-carded before (against England in 2000, South Africa in 2009 and New Zealand in 2022), but never before in all their years of playing Test rugby had the Wallabies received as many four.

However, they are not alone in this respect. As recently as July, in the Nations Championship, England had four players sin-binned in 26 second-half minutes against Argentina.

And in 2022, four yellow cards cost Wales as they threw away an 18-3 half-time lead against South Africa to lose 32-29 in Pretoria.

However, five yellow cards is the world record for the most in a single men’s Test, with Fiji the guilty party in a 37-31 defeat to Italy in November 2013.

Akapusi Qera, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Masi Matadigo and Nemani Nadolo saw yellow in the first half, leaving Fiji to play with 11 players for 12 minutes, before Sisa Koyamaibole was sin-binned in the second half.

Only the other week, France women played with 11 for eight minutes in the first half of their 29-26 win over Australia in the WXV Global Series.