How red cards will work in the 2024 Rugby Championship as SANZAAR tinker

Dylan Coetzee
Wayne Barnes showing a red card in the Rugby World Cup final.

Wayne Barnes showing a red card in the Rugby World Cup final.

SANZAAR have confirmed that the 20-minute red card will be in place for the 2024 Rugby Championship but so will a “full” red card. Here is a breakdown of how it will work.

The 20-minute red card has been in effect in Super Rugby Pacific since 2020 and this year marked the return of a full red card as well, which will continue into the 2024 Rugby Championship.

We run through the examples of what could result in either type of red card and what happens when a player gets two yellow cards.

20-minute red card

SANZAAR states that if an incident does NOT meet the threshold deemed to be “deliberate and with a high level of danger” a 20-minute red card can be issued to the offending player.

In this case, the player will not be permitted to return to the field of play but can be replaced with one of his team’s available replacements. The perpetrator cannot return.

A high-profile example of this kind of incident could be Sam Cane’s sending off in the Rugby World Cup while a more recent example could be Andre Esterhuizen’s red card against Portugal.

SANZAAR’s rationale for the law variation is that players and not the game should be punished for red card offences.

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‘Full’ red card

While there is a 20-minute red card in play, a player can still be sent off with a ‘full’ red card which is the standard punishment in years gone by.

For a player to receive a ‘full’ red card the foul play has to be “determined to be deliberate and with a high level of danger” for the referee to send the player off, according to SANZAAR’s release.

These cards will be handed out in cases where the foul play is clear and obviously worthy of a sending off. An example of this situation that comes to mind is Sebastien Vahaamahina elbowing Aaron Wainwright in the face at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Yellow cards

Yellow cards remain as they were before with the player who committed foul play being sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. The change comes when the same player is shown another yellow card.

If a player is shown two yellow cards in the same game they will serve their initial period of 10 minutes on the sidelines for the first of the offences and after the second is shown the team has to wait 20 minutes before they can replace the perpetrator.

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