It might not be a title they wanted but the Reds have stormed home to be the yellow card champions of the Super 14 with a total of 8 for the season. Perhaps it’s not surprising that one of the youngest teams in the Super 14 should rack up their fair share of sanctions but the cumulative effect is that the Reds played 80 minutes of rugby, or an entire game, with only 14 men.
The impact this had on their season is hard to quantify and it must be noted that out of the five games they lost, it was only the game against the Canes where they had a man binned, however to rack up 8 yellow cards is a problem.
Four teams finished higher than the Reds this year with both the Bulls and Saders earning 3 yellow cards each while the Tahs copped two and Stormers one.
When asked by G&GR about the amount of sin-binnings the Reds copped this year, McKenzie has some interesting things to say.
“Other sports sort it out after the game but in rugby it’s a big decision.
“I don’t mind a yellow card from a foul play point of view but sometimes this year they’ve been used for cynical play where there has been a lot of penalties and they have been used a fair bit. It’s a difficult tool for the referee to use because everyone knows it’s going to cost their team a try.”
Of the 8 yellow cards dished out to the Reds, half were for foul play however it could be argued that Van’s effort last night snotting Jimmy Cowan falls more in the category of a public service. Nonetheless, it is something the Reds must sort out if they are to reach their potential.
It’s an aspect of the Reds season that McKenzie and his team are already working through as part of their season review.
“We’ve already working on an analysis of yellow cards (the Reds received) and what impact they have on the game because it’s almost guaranteed tries for the opposition.
“Clearly it’s something we’ve got to fix up, if it’s us, then we’ve got to fix. If you give away 8 yellow cards then you have to say what are doing wrong?
“We’ll look at it in the context of the competition and ask why are we different to anyone else?
“Whether its youthful exuberance or stupidity or whatever, it doesn’t matter because we can’t play 80 minutes of rugby without a player and every time you get one there’s 8 tries, more probably, there was two against the Hurricanes.”
The Reds beat every team in the finals bar one, they have the talent but perhaps not the discipline to take the next step, next year should be a different story.
