Red-carded Scott Barrett faces missing the start of the World Cup

Ian Foster’s All Blacks became the latest country to become embroiled in red card trouble ahead of the upcoming Rugby World Cup when Scott Barrett was sent off by referee Matthew Carley just before the interval at Twickenham on Friday night.

England picked up bans last Tuesday for Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola that will see them miss their country’s start at France 2023.

Tonga’s Georga Moala was also unsuccessful on Thursday in his appeal of his five-game suspension for his tournament warm-up red card, and now New Zealand will be fretting that Barrett could be suspended for their September 8 World Cup opener versus France in Paris.

His penalty-ridden team, who went on to lose 7-35, were massively under the pump in the opening stages of their Qatar Airways Cup clash with the Springboks in London and Barrett was initially yellow carded on 14 minutes, a sin-binning that was swiftly followed a minute later by a yellow card for skipper Sam Cane.

South Africa used their two-man advantage to take a seven-point lead on 18 minutes courtesy of a converted Siya Kolisi try, and they doubled that lead on 34 minutes when Kurt-Lee Arendse was gifted an intercept by Jordie Barrett.

At this stage, New Zealand were 10-3 down on the penalty count and their frantic effort to get something back before the break resulted in a moment of madness from Barrett, who needlessly crashed his right shoulder down into the prone Malcolm Marx just metres from the try line.

With the clock stopped on 39 minutes, referee Carley reviewed the footage and opted to show Barrett another yellow card, resulting in him getting sent off and leaving him sweating over the receipt of a potential ban that would prevent him from being available to play against the French in two weeks’ time.

The red card was the second brandished to Barrett in his All Blacks career. He was previously sent off in August 2019 away to Australia in the Bledisloe Cup, but his resulting ban had expired by the time that year's World Cup in Japan began.

Down a player for the entire second half in London, the night soon went from bad to worse for the All Blacks as tries from Marx, Bongi Mbonambi (while teammate Pieter-Steph du Toit was on a yellow) and Kwagga Smith pushed the score to 35-0 by the 67th minute before Cam Roigard managed a late converted consolation.