All Blacks lock Scott Barrett was sent off last Friday evening, as New Zealand suffered their heaviest ever defeat in their history. New Zealand were soundly beaten by the Springboks 35-7, with Barrett being awarded two yellow cards, for an eventual sending off at Twickenham Stadium.
Barrett was initially issued a yellow card, after the All Blacks gave away too many team penalties for the referee’s liking. The Crusaders lock spent 10 minutes in the sin bin, yet shortly after his return to the action, he was issued with a second yellow, and subsequent red card.
Barrett was presented with his second yellow, after his mis-judged a clear out at the breakdown, with his leading shoulder making reckless contact with Springbok’s hooker Malcolm Marx. Fortunately for Barrett, his shoulder made initial contact with Marx’s body.
Barrett has not been issued with a ban following the incidents, and is in contention to play against France in the Rugby World Cup opener on Friday September 8th. This was Barrett’s saving grace, as legendary ex-referee Nigel Owens explained on World Rugby’s ‘Whistle Watch’ programme.
“The double yellow card for Scott Barrett. So, what you have first of all, you have a quite a few penalties given away by New Zealand. I think around seven in total.
“So, the referee now has probably said ‘look, there’s a lot of penalties here, if it continues, it’s going to be a yellow card.’ Hence we have a yellow card for Scott Barrett, because of the amount of penalties.
“Then what we have is another offence by Barrett, where he goes in off his feet, with a shoulder, cleaning out in the contact area. Now, he’s very, very lucky that he doesn’t make contact direct with the neck or the head. Because if so, then the referee would have probably given a straight red.
“But because the contact was away from the neck and the head and the referee felt that the degree of danger was low, which means that it’s now a yellow card offence, we then have a double yellow card. And of course, two yellow cards means a red.”