Is The Rash Of Red Cards Truly Making Game Safer?

Brave boy,” said Ugo Monye, admiringly, as he watched his beloved Harlequins close in on their famous Premiership semi-final victory over Bristol. “Tough boy,” agreed Lawrence Dallaglio, just a little less enthusiastically, being a lifelong Wasp with an axe the size of a guillotine to grind when it comes to the Twickenham set.

- Chris Hewett

They were referring to Jack Kenningham, the exuberantly energetic 21-year-old freshman in the Quins back row, and they were both right. Sadly, the broader context was not right at all. Indeed, there were so many shades of wrong about it, they would have filled an artist’s palette.

It was deep in extra time when Kenningham mistimed a perfectly legitimate tackle on his opposite number Ben Earl and came to rest in an unfamiliar time zone somewhere on Planet Zog. Alarmingly, the game continued around him for almost 90 seconds, after which he resumed playing, moving like a patient just coming round from a general anaesthetic before being led away for an assessment (which he passed, remarkably quickly, and duly returned for the remainder of the contest).

Those wondering whether this was a textbook handling of head injury protocols will find plenty to occupy their thoughts, but when the Kenningham incident is bracketed with three other incidents over semi-final weekend in England and France, rugby’s “tackle problem” emerges into full view.

At the very last knockings of the Ashton Gate tie, when Bristol were tooling themselves up for one last attack, the Quins back Luke Northmore clattered the Bristol centre Siale Piutau with a hit best described as… well…northerly.