Still seeing Red after our Captain was injured following a collision with the Namibian captain on Thursday. Luckily, he’s doing OK and not expected to be withdrawn from the team.
Decided to see how many red cards have been issued at previous RWCs to see what the numbers were:
1987: 2
1991: 2
1995: 4
1999: 4
2003: 0
2007: 2
2011: 2
2015: 1
2019: 8
2023: 4 so far
While some red cards have been harsh I feel, like Tom Curry’s in the game against Argentina, others have been disappointing as a minimum. I expected better from national players representing their country in front of a global audience.
It reminds me of Scott Barrett’s dive into Malcolm Marx at Twickenham in August; Marx was on the ground, so why did he go in for the “tackle”? Words just fail me…
I know there has been a huge focus placed on refs to watch out for reckless fouls, and rightly so. I’m told there are now about 17 cameras focused from different angles on each match so that they can be used to check. It also means that teams have more exposure if their players commit any professional infringements – about time!
