Much-vaunted policy of sending players off for head contact has resulted in plenty of bans but little meaningful change
This weekend Sam Skinner should be lacing his boots to play for Exeter in a Premiership final. But in the last round of the regular season, he bent his 6ft 5in frame to tackle a 5ft 7in scrum‑half. He caught him in the head and thus became the latest player to be shown a red card.
Skinner misses the climax of the season because of the mandatory ban. And he can forget about any call-ups to play for the Lions or Scotland this summer, too. It is a rank injustice, at which far too many are prepared to shrug their shoulders while repeating some mantra, handed down from on high, about these red cards being for the players’ own good. There is no evidence so far to suggest this.
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