History: Sin bin and colourful cards

Neither sin bins nor sanctionary cards go back a long time in rugby. In fact they are not even rugby ideas.

The sin bin comes from ice hockey, apparently, but is now in common use in other sports. The sanctionary cards, so the story goes was an flash on inspiration at a traffic light.

Neither ice hockey nor rugby football talks about the sin bin. Ice hockey speaks about the penalty box, rugby union about temporary suspension.

It may well have been a South African idea and originally called the cooler. Bertie Strasheim was a top referee in the Sixties. He refereed Tests and the 1968 Currie Cup Final, giving up in 1972. Piet Robbertse, also a Test and Currie Cup Final referee and later the chairman of South African referees, remembers a match refereed by Strasheim when the good doctor found an emotional prop a problem. Strasheim told him he was a problem and ordered him to sit on the touch-line till he called him back, which he did after three minutes or so. Robbertse says that Strasheim s-did this as there was no middle measure between letting the nuisance stay on the field and sending him off though what he was doing did not really warrant sending off and all that would follow.

Robbertse says this provoked a lot of discussion and Dr Craven tested the idea in his law laboratory at Stellenbosch where there is the highly competitive internal league.

Then South Africa proposed to the International Rugby Board  the introduction of the  “cooler” to in 1972 and the IRB rejected the idea. They proposed it again in 1975 and again it was rejected. But in 1979 South Africa was given the dispensation to use – and report on – the introduction of the cooler. It was allowed in domestic competition in South Africa but did not apply to matches involving teams from abroad. (Two years late rugby league in New South Wales adopted the use of the sin bin.)

The cooler was not intended for repeated infringement or what has come to be called professional/cynical infringement. It was intended to do what the name suggests – cool down a player who was getting heated under the collar. It was set down as of five minutes’ duration.

The first known, official use of the cooler was on 10 April 1975 in Pretoria in a Reserve Legaue match between Oostelikes and Pretoria when Naas Ferreira, a  provincial referee in the Seventies, sent two players to the cooler. It had then – and for a short while only – become a part of South African rugby law.

Eventually the sin bin – temporary suspension – was introduced into the game. It was used under dispensation in the Southern Hemisphere and then on 29 January 2000 it was part of the experimental law variations – ELVs are not a new concept – that followed the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The sin bin was used in the Six Nations that year for the first time., From then on it became a matter of law. right from its universal introduction as an ELV it was of ten minutes’ duration.

It could be used for two reasons – foul play and for repeated or cynical infringement, which is in fact a part of foul play. (In ice hockey every penalty earns the offender time in the sin bin/bad box/ penalty box.)

Regulations were made for the use of temporary suspension, laying down that it should be for ten minutes’ playing time, for example.

At the end there are some laws quoted in which the sin bin (temporary suspension) is mentioned.

About the same time that the sin bin came into rugby, sanctionary cards arrived as well, a soccer idea, the brainchild of a soccer referee who was waiting for a traffic light to change and put the time to good use.

Ken Ashton was going home from the 1966 World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina. Newspapers had reported that both Jack and Bobby Charlton had been booked, but there was no public indication of this from the referee. The Argentinian captain Antonio Rattin was to be  off the field but stayed put as he apparently did not understand what was happening. Aston ran on to the pitch and, in his schoolboy Spanish, tried to persuade Rattin to depart so the game could continue. Driving away from the stadium later that day Aston began to ponder the problem of how referees could make their intentions clear to players without having to speak the same language. Aston pondered how to make the position clearer. “As I drove down Kensington High Street, the traffic light turned red. I thought, ‘Yellow, take it easy; red, stop, you’re off’.”

The idea was subsequently adopted by association football at national and international level. Red and yellow cards were introduced to the game at the World Cup finals in Mexico in 1970. It did not go smoothly as referees were accused of flashing them too often and their use was suspended from 1981 to 1987, but they made a comeback in 1988 and became law in 1992.

Yellow cards – the cautionary ones – were used in 1999 Rugby World Cup but without any further sanction but then came to signal a trip to the sin bin in 2000.

There is a difference between the sin bin and the yellow card. The sin bin affects play by taking the player out of the game for ten minutes. The yellow card is just a device to indicate this; it does not affect play. The use of the voice would suffice., But as Ashton realised the yellow card would transcend language barriers.

In 2003 rugby introduced the red card. That meant off, a sanction against a wayward player since 1888 when it was written down that a player should be sent off for foul play, a pretty reasonable way of acting. For deliberate infringement there is written instruction to deal with it in the same way as foul play dated 1911: Referees must deal very sharply with all cases of this nature, as this has been a growing practice through players deciding to take the risk of a penalty  to gain or save a try by unfair play. This practice is so contrary to the spirit of the game, that the Board have decided to deal with it upon the same footing as rough or foul play or misconduct.

Two yellow cards in the same match is tantamount to a red card and the player is sent off. In some tournaments three yellow cards against the same player results in an inquiry. IRB regulations suggest that it does not take sin-binning lightly. In matches it regulates, each sin bin must be reported and three sin bins leads to an inquiry.

The French at one stage had a white card as well. Yellow and red were for varying degrees of foul play, the  white card for law infractions. The white card has disappeared from France.

Hockey has three cards – green for warning, yellow for temporary suspension and red for off.

Because the card is only an additional tool there is no obligation to use it, except in international matches. In matches with teams of the same language telling the player would be just as good.

Law 10.6 YELLOW AND RED CARDS
(a) When a player has been cautioned and temporarily suspended in an International match the referee will show that player a yellow card.

(b) When a player has been sent off in an International match, the referee will show that player a red card.

(c) For other matches the Match Organiser or Union having jurisdiction over the match may decide upon the use of yellow and red cards.

Here are some little things involving the use of the sin bin and the cards.

In 1995 Gordon Black of Ireland showed Mark Cooksley a yellow card before it was in accepted use for all. It was for punching a player in Nancy. That was before it carried a temporary suspension.

In 1996 Ben Clarke of England became the first player to receive a yellow card in a Test match, shown it by Patrick Thomas of France for stamping on Simon Geoghegan, Clarke was allowed to play on.

At the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Alessandro Moscardi was sent to the sin bin in matches against England, Tonga and New Zealand.

At the 1999 Rugby World Cup Paddy O’Brien of New Zealand used the first yellow cared at a world cup when he showed it to Roberto Grau of Argentina when the Pumas played Wale sin Cardiff.

In 2003 Stuart Dickinson of Australia sent two English players to the sin bin against New Zealand in New Zealand, and England won.

In 2005 Alan Lewis of Ireland sent three All Blacks to the sin bin against England in England and New Zealand won.

******

Law 10.5 SANCTIONS
(a) Any player who infringes any part of the Foul Play law must be admonished, or cautioned and temporarily suspended, or sent-off.

(b) A player who has been cautioned and temporarily suspended who then commits a second cautionable offence within the Foul Play law must be sent-off.

That is wide – the whole of foul play which includes obstruction, unfair play, repeated infringements, dangerous play and misconduct which is prejudicial to the game.

For example:

Law 10.3 REPEATED INFRINGEMENTS

(a) Repeatedly offending. A player must not repeatedly infringe any law. Repeated infringement is a matter of fact. The question of whether or not the player intended to infringe is irrelevant.
Penalty: Penalty Kick
A player penalised for repeated infringements must be cautioned and temporarily suspended. If that player then commits a further cautionable offence, or the same offence, the player must be sent off.

(b) Repeated infringements by the team. When different players of the same team repeatedly commit the same offence, the referee must decide whether or not this amounts to repeated infringement. If it does, the referee gives a general warning to the team and if they then repeat the offence, the referee cautions and temporarily suspends the guilty player(s) for a period of 10 minutes playing time. If a player of that same team then repeats the offence the referee sends off the guilty player(s).
Penalty: Penalty Kick
A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored.

(c) Repeated infringements: standard applied by referee. When the referee decides how many offences constitute repeated infringement, the referee must always apply a strict standard in representative and senior matches. When a player offends three times the referee must caution that player.
The referee may relax this standard in junior or minor matches, where infringements may be the result of poor knowledge of the laws or lack of skill.

Law 10.2 UNFAIR PLAY
(a) Intentionally Offending. A player must not intentionally infringe any law of the game, or play unfairly. The player who intentionally offends must be either admonished, or cautioned that a send off will result if the offence or a similar offence is committed, or sent off. After a caution a player is temporarily suspended for a period of ten minutes playing time. After a
caution, the player commits the same or similar offence, the player must be sent off.
Penalty: Penalty Kick
A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored. A player who
prevents a try being scored through foul play must either be cautioned and temporarily suspended or sent off.

(b) Time-wasting. A player must not intentionally waste time.
Penalty: Free Kick

(c) Throwing into touch. A player must not intentionally knock, place, push or throw the ball with his arm or hand into touch, touch-in-goal, or over the dead ball line.
Penalty: Penalty Kick on the 15-metre line if the offence is between the 15-metre line and the touchline, or, at the place of infringement if the offence occurred elsewhere in the field of play, or, 5 metres from the goal line and at least 15 metres from the touchline if the infringement occurred in in-goal.
A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored.