Wallabies V South Africa - 27 August 2022

[bootsetal06]

Huge positive for Concussion Protocols….. Nic White couldn’t collapse in a heap otherwise he’d have to go off for an HIA …instead he had to play the I’ve been shot by a burst of machine gun fire card ….

[GIGS20]

Huge positive for Concussion Protocols….. Nic White couldn’t collapse in a heap otherwise he’d have to go off for an HIA …instead he had to play the I’ve been shot by a burst of machine gun fire card ….

I think he realised that when his hand was halfway to his chin then he stopped and had to think how he was going to milk a penalty.Generally pretty poorly done and deserving of the ridicule, however the card was 100% correct

[Sheikh]

I think he realised that when his hand was halfway to his chin then he stopped and had to think how he was going to milk a penalty. Generally pretty poorly done and deserving of the ridicule, however the card was 100% correct

My reading of the law is that a swinging arm resulting in contact to the head is a red card, with the mitigation of low energy bringing it down to a yellow. "Milking it" isn't a recognised mitigation, and this being a professional sport, with potentially win bonuses on the line, White's teammates wouldn't thank him if he didn't use the opportunity to highlight to the ref that de Klerk had committed a foul, especially if de Klerk went on to help the Boks win.

[GIGS20]

My reading of the law is that a swinging arm resulting in contact to the head is a red card, with the mitigation of low energy bringing it down to a yellow. "Milking it" isn't a recognised mitigation, and this being a professional sport, with potentially win bonuses on the line, White's teammates wouldn't thank him if he didn't use the opportunity to highlight to the ref that de Klerk had committed a foul, especially if de Klerk went on to help the Boks win.

I agree that the milking has no impact on the sanction.

in head contact, the law needs to be read with reference to the head contact guidelines which have been published by World Rugby for quite a while now, basically once Foul Play has been established (which it appears that any direct contact to the head is considered foul play now) the level of sanction is judged by the "degree of danger" with "low" being PK and "High" being Red. In the explanatory notes, the considerations are Direct vs Indirect and High Force vs Low Force. Once the sanction is determined, mitigating factors can reduce YC to PK or RC to YC (note PK CANNOT be mitigated) In the mitigation notes it talks about Sudden and Significant drop in height or movement, Line of Sight, Level of Control, Passive vs Dynamic

so breaking down DeKlerk's actions
Has head contact occurred? - Yes
Is there foul play? - this one appears contentious, it must be judged as foul play, because the process continued so I'd suggest the ref called it a strike to the head, which is clearly foul play under Law 9.12
What is the Degree of Danger - It must have been determined to be moderate, otherwise a PK would have been awarded. That would mean that it was judged to be Direct contact with Low force, I can get on board with that assessment, therefore Yellow
Are there mitigating circumstances? - no, White didn't "significantly or suddenly" move, nor was De Klerk's line of sight obstructed so I'm going to say no mitigation. thus it remains Yellow, there's also a note that no mitigation applies to reckless or deliberate actions, which might apply in Willams' mind.

Long Story short, I can see the process applying to the head contact situation and understand why De Klerk got the card.
https://resources.world.rugby/worldr...cess_EN_v1.pdf

I can't see any law that bans Nick White carrying on like a pork chop about it, therefore whilst I'm not a fan of it it's currently legal.