Seven-try Bulls make it another miserable URC away day for Ulster

Alright, to his credit he did have something to say after that..

“As far as the 20-minute red card idea is concerned, I’m not a fan. As Mathieu has said, I don’t believe it will really solve any of the problems that we have in the game at the moment.

So we might as well start here, which I'm assume was the topic he started with as well. The only reason 20min rec cards were brought in was to make the game fairer, a problem highlighted by their recent frequency.

A player, and team, should receive the same punishment for a particular foul, no matter what. Red cards (as they were) don't achieve that as the punishment is purely dependent and what stage of the game it is (if you think a punishment has an effect on the frequency of offenses, ask yourself if you've noticed more people committing red card offences towards the ends of game). So a team who receives a red card in the first minute of the game, is overly punished and that is obviously going to be the case for the viewers as well. That is the problem a fixed length red card 'solves'.

Now, onto the other topics he raises..

“They should not be seen as red card offences in the first place – so do we need to change the laws instead?

They're not!!!! They are now seen as 20min red card offences. Here at least, you could still be given a straight red no replacement card on the field for 'thuggery'. This is the law change you're asking for!

Too often, players are still not making the effort to go lower.

Going lower is the cause of these problems. There is nothing wrong with upright tackles, they are safe. Shoulder charging and swinging arms are long out of the game Nigel!

if you have been sent off, you have done something reckless that has put another player at great risk

No, not necessarily. But in the few cases where they were, that punishment is for the player. Not the team. You can be sent off for receiving a 'team' yellow, this is a case were the rule should directly be rectified however. It's outside this discussion.

A red card means you deserve to be off the pitch, so I don’t see why there should be a middle ground.

There is still a lot of careless, reckless conduct out there, so I don’t know if introducing these new cards has made much of a difference anyway.”

I don't recall any careless or reckless behaviour, not at least in TRC, what is he referring to? What we did just see was the game last week be saved by the 20min RC rule. We had what Nigel is describing as an accidental head collision which saw Argentina receive a read card (must have been very close to yellow). Normally that would have destroyed the game (and it did for that period), but by returning to 15 players it was still able to be a contest, which Opta suggests would normally have had just a 7 point gap between the teams. This is why there is a middle ground (what you have been saying you want!!).

do we need to change the laws instead?

Back to his poorly made point. I would suggest bigger off field penalties that are far more involved that a 'tackling' school, and obviously not just for the player, the whole team, especially the coachs, needed to be doing the penance. A definite review to team based yellow cards and how infringement sequences can be better handled is required as well.

Great day for the RSA based franchises .....