Nigel Owens: 20-minute red cards ‘totally wrong’ and ‘papers over the cracks’

It is currently being used in Super Rugby and is supported by a number of coaches in the southern hemisphere, but critics are concerned that it will lead to more foul play and undermine the player welfare cause.

There have been a spate of red cards in Super Rugby Pacific recently, including four in five games two weeks ago, but World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin would still like to see it trialled in more competitions.

“It would be great if more competitions, even in a closed trial, would use it because that would give us more of an overview of the effect it would have on the game,” Gilpin told the Telegraph.

“We need to see more of the data to see whether that strikes the balance between safety and spectacle better.

“There is more work to do to analyse that and the concern is, if a team goes back to 15 players, is that enough of a deterrent to drive that behavioural change.

“We would like to see it trialled more widely before drawing any conclusions.”

There are also those in the north, including Rob Baxter, Alex Sanderson and Pat Lam, who have all lent their support for the law.

But Owens, who was one of the game’s leading officials until his retirement from international refereeing in 2020, disagrees and believes it could cause significant problems for the sport going forward.

“The part which I don’t understand is that you will hear talk about players being unlucky to be sent off, and that therefore you need a 20-minute card as a solution,” he wrote in the Telegraph.

“Well, my response would be that if a player is unlucky to be sent off, then he shouldn’t be sent off.

“Governing bodies need to stay strong on those acts of recklessness and thuggery. We have already seen how strict policing of certain offences can lead to