(last updated Dec 31/11 kg)
Hey! As the union and Referee Society, we have records of Send-Offs (Red Cards). Of course, for really foul play, dump tackles and repeat infringements, we give out Red Cards as the final stage in the attempt of modifying player behaviour.
One day, a bunch of us were discussing the flow of cards during a game and season: high school, juniors and senior rugby and asked, “what other yellow cards were given out that did not lead to a red card later?” And like any good Socratic debate, other questions seemed to ignite, such as “Are their players who always play on the edge, get yellow carded often but never get red carded?”, “Are we consistent in reasons why we give cards out as a society?”, “Does the E3 division get the most yellow cards?”, and many more.
So, just for interest we asked all the ERURS referees to send in general yellow card activity, including divisions, teams, half, and reason over the period of June 18 through July 31. Please find below the statistics (not pointing to any ref or specific team) that we have gathered from information shared with us up to September 30, 2011.
All stat collection for the 2011 Yellow Card project closed as of September 30, 2011.
2011 Yellow Card Project – card & game details
2011 Yellow Card Project – stats share kg
ERURS Yellow Card Project – Discussion
What’s it all possibly mean?
Looking at the statistics, we see that the results are in for the yellow card reporting for 6 weeks from June 18 through July 31.
During that period there were a total of 90 games and 29 Yellow Cards were issued in 17 of those 90 games. This suggests that overall most of our games are played fairly and cleanly.
Nine different referees issued Yellow Cards during the reporting period which is about half the number of active referees over that time.
The maximum number of cards in a game was 5. Twenty-two (22) of the cards were given in the 2nd half; eighteen (18) cards were for foul play and ten (10) were for cynical or repeat infringements, the other was for dissent. The use of cards in the 2nd half is not surprising as this is when players tire and tempers fray. The above points indicate that our referees are using Yellow Cards judiciously as a game management tool.
Here are a few points to ponder during the off-season:
The cynical or repeat infringements were issued at the AC level in all but one case. Many of the players in the other divisions are well versed in the dark arts of rugby. Are we being too lenient with repeat infringements at the lower divisions? Most of the foul play cards were issued at 3rd division. Again, are we being too lenient on foul play at the lower level? Would greater application of red cards sort out the rotten apples?
How many Yellow Cards are needed before we escalate to issuing a team caution and go to Red Cards? Is 5 cards in one game too many? How about 4 or 3? There were only 2 Yellow Cards issued in women’s games. Do the women play within the laws that much more or are we too chivalrous?
Cynical Play or Professional Foul
Some people may ask “What is cynical play” or a “Professional foul“. Well, I have been looking around for a good definition, but have not found one on-line to link to. So, we talked to our rugby law gurus to get more of layman’s terms to describe the cynical play:
- A player is offisde & knows it, and refuses to retreat when directed by the referee.
- Any blatant infringement that would have prevented a try from being scored, usually in close to the goal line (red zone, 0-12m away from the goal line).
- Not an accidental offense, a really bad infringement at a really bad time – this can even be not releasing the ball to the non-offending team for a quick tap penalty.
If anyone has an awesome example or definition of cynical play or professional foul in rugby, please let me know!