Nigel Owens' verdict on the 20-minute red card trial

Retired referee Nigel Owens has shared his verdict on the 20-minute red card trial which has been used in The Rugby Championship and Super Rugby Pacific. It was last May when World Rugby signalled it would also be trialling this revised sanction, explaining that the 20-minute red would be used in its tournaments such as WXV, the Pacific Nations Cup and U20 Championship.

Results of this trial are to be evaluated with a recommendation made to World Rugby council in November. In the meantime, Owens has given his view on the 20-minute red after it emerged that French rugby bosses were poised to unveil the law proposals they want to see.

Mathieu Raynal, another retired Test referee, has been involved in formulating ideas such as increasing match day squads from 23 to 25 players but cutting the number of used replacements from eight to six. They also want do away with the 20-minute red card, an aspiration Owens agreed with.

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Writing in his latest weekly walesonline.co.uk column, he stated: “As far as the 20-minute red card idea is concerned, I’m not a fan. As Mathieu has said, I don’t believe it will really solve any of the problems that we have in the game at the moment.

“If someone on the pitch has committed a red card offence, they should be given a red card that sees them sin-binned for the rest of the game. Simple as that. The problem at the moment is that players are being sent off for things like accidental head collisions, which are not acts of thuggery or recklessness, but simply rugby collisions just accidentally gone wrong.

“They should not be seen as red card offences in the first place – so do we need to change the laws instead? I think so, or we certainly need to look at the options, especially upright tackles. Too often, players are still not making the effort to go lower.

“I’m against the 20 minute red card because if you have been sent off, you have done something reckless that has put another player at great risk, or you have committed an act of thuggery. A red card means you deserve to be off the pitch, so I don’t see why there should be a middle ground.

“In my view, having a 20-minute red card is a cop-out. It’s simply papering over the cracks, when the discussion that really needs to be had is defining exactly what constitutes a red card offence and what doesn’t. That would be far more constructive for the game of rugby.

“Plus, we didn’t see any real changes in player behaviour when it was trialled this summer, including at The Rugby Championship. There is still a lot of careless, reckless conduct out there, so I don’t know if introducing these new cards has made much of a difference anyway.”

Nigel Owens: The rugby experiment I don't like and the issue everyone seems to be missing https://t.co/sVgskVfjjt

— WalesOnline Rugby (@WalesRugby) October 5, 2024