Morgan Turinui has urged referees to not forget about the power of delivering a straight red card in the wake of Angus Blyth’s horror hit on Corey Toole on Friday.
Reds lock Blyth was slapped with a three week suspension on Tuesday for the nasty head clash on Toole that ruled the dazed Brumbies winger out of the match in Brisbane.
Blyth was initially shown a yellow card by referee Ben O’Keeffe which was then upgraded to red after being reviewed by TMO Shane McDermott under the new Super Rugby Pacific guidelines.
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‘World’s worst attempt at a charge down’
The Reds were then able to replace Blyth after he had been on the sidelines for 20 minutes.
“The process right now is if there is clear, unequivocal foul play of a red card threshold, the referee can still give a red card,” former Wallaby Turinui said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts.
“I suppose we can call it the old school red card – ‘You’re off, you can’t be replaced after 20, you’re gone, your team lose a man.’ An obvious, direct, zero mitigation, straight away high tackle can and should still be one of those red cards.
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“We’re saying kicking and headbutting and punching, yeah of course. But it doesn’t mean that high tackles can’t be in that too.”
Turinui had some sympathy for O’Keeffe, who was operating under the new SANZAAR guidelines and clearly trying to keep the game moving for the spectators.
“It was like the world’s worst attempt at a charge down, the way his body was. The issue was he showed no regard for the safety of the opposition player. I would have been very comfortable with taking 30 seconds to give that a straight red card,” Turinui said.
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“But I completely understand, with the way that Super Rugby Pacific want to speed up the spectacle of the game, the actual time the match takes, that Ben O’Keeffe went ‘Well, I reckon that’s yellow/red…’
“It actually did help their cause because instead of having the full red, they were only without a player for 20 minutes.”
The Brumbies went on to win the game 52-24 and pile more pressure on Reds coach Brad Thorn.
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