This 12 months’s Six Nations rugby championship will characteristic 20-minute crimson playing cards for the primary time after the regulation variation was trialled in the course of the November internationals, organisers say.
Beneath the change, some crimson card offences will see a participant despatched to the sin bin for 20 minutes with the offender then ready to get replaced on the sphere by a teammate off the bench when the punishment has been accomplished.
Referees can nonetheless hand out everlasting crimson playing cards to scale back a workforce by a participant for the rest of the competition for offences deemed deliberate and with a excessive stage of hazard.
First launched in southern hemisphere competitors, 20-minute crimson playing cards will characteristic within the males’s, girls’s and Beneath-20s Six Nations.
Final October, the proposed trial of the 20-minute crimson card in elite ranges of the sport drew criticism from French rugby chiefs saying it might encourage extra aggressive play and expose gamers to higher threat of harm.
Julie Paterson, Chief of Rugby at Six Nations Rugby, mentioned the regulation change and different trials have been amongst measures aimed toward clarifying areas of the sport for gamers and coaches in addition to enhancing the expertise for followers.
“The Autumn Nations Collection was an awesome case research for the progress that’s being made, and it’ll be extremely thrilling to see this proceed and evolve by the Six Nations Championships,” she mentioned in a media launch on Wednesday.
Amongst different measures, referees can be going ‘on mic’ to clarify key choices and ‘contact finder’ know-how can be launched to help the selections of the match official, organisers added.
