France against World Rugby and the 20-minute expulsion: “It’s not true that the reds kill matches”

The controversy over the 20-minute red card, used for some years in Super Rugby, continues: the SANZAAR federations (New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and South Africa) would be in favor of its use at global level, and would be willing to support a possible proposal from World Rugby, which would like to launch a sort of “global test” of the 20-minute red throughout the world. On the other hand, however, some European federations are firmly opposed, among these is France, which has made its position clear through the vice-president of the FFR Jean-Marc Lhermet.

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“The great southern nations are pushing for the twenty-minute red card, arguing that the sending off of a player has too great an impact on the final result and risks making people lose interest. We consulted the players’ union, the coaches’ union, the referees. The French position is quite unanimous: we are against this development, and so are other northern nations,” Lhermet told Midi Olympique.

“Out of 160 matches played in Tier 1 since 2021, 30 have seen red cards: the numerically inferior team has lost in 60% of cases, which is very far from what we are told, that permanent reds distort matches. The impact of the red card is therefore not systematic. Their thesis according to which the show would be killed by a red card does not seem founded to us” continued the vice president.

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Lhermet then also focused on another important topic, that of the red card as a deterrent for dangerous tackles: “Since incorrect gestures, dangerous tackles and tackles in the air are punished with higher sanctions, they have almost disappeared. Well, we fear that trivializing the red card will ultimately lead to this type of behavior recurring.”

Even in terms of the image and philosophy of sport, according to Lhermet, eliminating permanent expulsion would be harmful: “In people’s minds, a red card means permanent expulsion. We therefore risk losing the general public along the way. From a more philosophical point of view, and within the team sport par excellence, we are also sorry that the collective impact of a red card is disappearing: historically, the fault of a player has always had an impact on the team. in its entirety”

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