Watch: Top 5 Craziest Red Cards Ever
The final minutes of this year’s Rugby Championship brought one of its most controversial moments.
With the All Blacks and the Springboks locked in the closing stages of the tournament’s best battle Damian De Allende was ordered off in what was at best a questionable decision.
Since the South African centre clattered into Lima Sopoaga, the rugby world has been in uproar over the ridiculousness of the decision to send him off, which has since been rescinded.
Social media users have bitten into the issue in every which way, and brought up all manner of examples to support their claims.
After all, it’s not the only time a referee has wrongly brandished a card, to prove it here
Sam Warburton
Perhaps the best known of the cards on this list is Sam Warburton’s red in the World Cup semi-final in 2011. Only 18 minutes into the game Alain Rolland effectively ended any contest by sending off the Welsh captain, and after years of debate, it was decided that to the letter of the law he was correct. It then turned to the law as the point of discussion, and to the fact no referee should have the power to effectively give one team a win with his interpretation. Warburton’s tackle was a game changer in more ways than one and has since acted as the reference point for not lifting a player through 90 degrees in any tackle.
Chris Ashton and Manu Tuilagi
We’ll fully admit that there’s no red card here, but two yellows make a red, and the two seen here were both so wrong they deserve to make this list. Chris Ashton is never usually the victim in these scenarios, but here he does no more than push Manu Tuilagi after a being hit with a dangerous tackle. So for his trouble, Ashton has been the recipient of a high tackle, 3 punches, and a yellow card. On the other side, Tuilagi gets away with a sin-binning even after having performed his best Mike Tyson impression. There are 3 things for sure here, Tuilagi should have been sent off, Ashton did well to stay on his feet, and England camp was awkward that Autumn.
Ryno Barnes
In a much less well-known incident, there’s a lot of confusion and mystery surrounding the red card issued to Ryno Barnes in his 100th Currie Cup match. After the referee made a close but correct offside call Barnes was alleged by the touch judge to have said “you ref like a piece of p**s” in the direction of referee Pro Legote. If that’s what he truly said, he absolutely deserves his marching orders, there’s no place for that in our game. However, a week later his card and ensuing ban were rescinded by the SARU, and no information was released. All in all, it seems to be a case of what happens in Loftus stays in Loftus.
Sergio Parisse
In all estimations, Sergio Parisse is a model professional, a fantastic player, leader and advocate of respect in the game of rugby. So when he was red-carded towards the end of the first half in a Top14 game, eyebrows were raised. By everyone’s guesses, it seems like poor Parisse fell victim to the Warburton effect. He was attempting to hold his opposite number up, but the Toulouse number 8 wanted obviously to get to ground. Parisse had grabbed him by the waist so when he tried to get down he went through 90 degrees, making it illegal by the book, despite the fact the Italian talisman was trying to do literally the opposite of driving him into the ground. Another example of an exception finding a roadblock in the rulebook and resulting in an unjust red card.
Jebb Sinclair
While there may be rulebook reasons for most red cards, we can’t find any reasons for this one. With Canada 2 points down and chasing a historic win over Scotland, Jebb Sinclair ran hard at the line like any good back-rower should. He doesn’t raise his elbow, he doesn’t hit the tackler with anything unusual, he just swats him away with impressive strength. We’re not even sure if his elbow is properly involved in the play whatsoever. The referee however, is convinced that with 4 minutes to go, a malicious and dangerous leading elbow has ploughed into the Scottish defender. Both the players and fans were mystified, and we can only assume Specsavers don’t do great business in Toronto.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments