World Rugby CEO calls for more cards

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper has urged referees to show more red and yellow cards in a continued effort to eradicate dangerous tackles in the game.

According to the latest RFU data, the incidence of concussion has spiked dramatically in the past decade and concussions made up 22 percent of all match injuries in the 2016/17 season.

During the November international series there have been a number of high-profile incidents that have gone unpunished, most notably Wallabies centre Samu Kerevi’s high hit on Leigh Halfpenny that left the Wales full-back concussed.

The tackle, which has subsequently forced Halfpenny to withdraw from Wales’ next two Tests, drew criticism from former South African referee Jonathan Kaplan and Gosper agreed that there has been a tendency to be too lenient.

“The cards are there to change behaviour,” Gosper told the Daily Telegraph.

“They only continue to be a problem if behaviour does not change. The only way you can get player behaviour to change is to sanction with red cards and actually, we have probably not seen enough of it.

“I would say in many ways we have probably not been hard enough. There have probably not been as many yellow cards as we would like, and maybe not even as many red cards as we would like. We have not had the behaviour change that we are seeking yet, so we have to continue in that vein.

“The whole tackle law is to protect the ball carrier and the tackler, in fact mostly the tackler, given that two thirds of concussions occur to that player rather than the one carrying the ball.

“Dropping the height of the tackle is due to the statistics showing us that if the player is bent at the waist as they tackle, they are four times less likely to suffer a concussion. Of course when you drop the height of the tackle, you are also less likely to concuss the ball carrier.”

Gosper admitted that World Rugby’s efficacy on tackling the issue of reducing head injuries had left a bit to be desired.

“We recognise that there are consistencies, and over time that will sort itself out. We are working to rectify them. We cannot stand there with our hands up and say we get it right every time,” he said.

“Our job is to keep insisting on the objectives that we have for player welfare reasons. After the first weekend of November we had meetings with the referees and coaches to remind them what we are looking for in this area to get that consistency everyone wants to see.”

Gosper offered support for the men in charge on the pitch and applauded them for undertaking the difficult job that refereeing entailed.

“It is not an easy job being a referee and they are under a lot of pressure,” he added.

“We give them our full support. Our job is to make them feel comfortable with what we want them to do with the tackle area.”