Investec Champions Cup: Wayne Barnes and Brian O'Driscoll praise 'common sense' approach to potential red card incidents

Brian O’Driscoll and Wayne Barnes heaped praise on the “common sense” approach in regard to high tackles and potential instances of foul play taken by referees during this weekend’s Investec Champions Cup action.

World Rugby has been keen to clamp down on dangerous play and make the game safer, which has led to more yellow and red cards being brandished and the introduction of the bunker review system.

Barnes retired after refereeing October’s World Cup final between New Zealand and South Africa, a game in which he sent off All Blacks captain Sam Cane and showed three further yellow cards.

Acting as a pundit on the TNT Sports Rugby Review Show, the 44-year-old picked out a moment in the game between Harlequins and Toulouse at the Stoop that he thought referee Chris Busby handled perfectly.

The French side completed a dominant victory but were perhaps fortunate not to be reduced to 14 men when Pita Ahki made head-on-head contact with Dino Lamb that left the Quins man unable to continue.

After a lengthy delay, Busby decided there was enough mitigation not to warrant a red card, with Barnes agreeing that a trip to the sin-bin was the right call.

“Player safety is still paramount,” Barnes emphasised on TNT Sports. “We’ve still got to deal with high hits and make sure they’re refereed, but what I've enjoyed this weekend is the referees are using their game understanding, using a bit of common sense to get to the right decisions.

“In this situation on the Sunday afternoon, we see Dino Lamb being tackled by Pita Ahki. But there's a change in height from Dino Lamb and all of that just changes that contact area. And then you've got Pita Ahki who has to adjust at the last minute.

“So I looked at that and thought it didn’t feel like a red card. This idea that they don't look like red cards [is interesting]. We want red cards to jump out and hit us in the face.”

TNT Sports pundit Brian O’Driscoll also welcomed what he described as a “change” in how high tackles are being dealt with since the World Cup.

“It feels like we're now finding a reason not to give a red card whereas before everything felt like it was red card down,” O’Drsicoll added.

“Whereas now there really has to be a significant incident of foul play or a clash of heads where body position is way off to require a red card to be handed out.”

Barnes also gave his verdict on an incident that occurred last week during Leinster’s match with La Rochelle.

Referee Matt Carley took issue with the level of backchat he was receiving from Leinster co-captain James Ryan and decided he would only communicate with Garry Ringrose for the remainder of the encounter.

“I've asked him [Ryan] several times and he's not listening,” Carley told Ringrose. “He's speaking to me at every penalty and now he's almost asking for a captain's referral. I told him no.”

It seemed to split opinion but Barnes said his former contemporary handled the situation well and offered a potential solution that would take some pressure off referees and reduce the growing level of dissent they are being subjected to.

“I thought Matt Carley refereed that extremely well,” Barnes said. “Really calm, really composed. Just said to James Ryan that you're appealing to me all the time, you're coming to ask for TMO referrals, that's enough now. I’m going to speak to the other captain Garry Ringrose.

“We’re seeing that more and more across the game where players are asking for referrals, we saw over the weekend imaginary cards being waved.

“What I'd love is rather than everything just being put on referees, how about the cricket situation where if you over appeal in cricket or show dissent by smacking your bat on the floor, you get the match referee who takes half your fee away.

“Wouldn't that be great. One of the things that we hold really true in rugby, the values of respect, we say, ‘Look, we're really going to go after that’.

“But we're not going to force the referee to do everything. It would be great if we just took a little bit of pressure off the referees in those situations.”

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