Tri-Nations rugby: Gregor Paul - All Blacks red card exposes the laughable state of modern rugby

Ofa Tuungafasi of the All Blacks walks off after being red carded. Photo / Photosport

OPINION

Rugby is so conflicted when it comes to player safety that it has become laughable in a not so funny way that red cards are flashed around in the name of protection.

Two red cards were shown in Brisbane and as Ofa Tuungafasi and Lachlan Swinton trudged off at Suncorp, World Rugby chalked up another victory for making the game that little bit safer.

That claim, however, has been made to look frankly ridiculous in recent weeks. All 130kg of Tuungafasi crashed into the chin of Tom Wright and yet the slightly built Wallabies wing didn't require a head injury assessment?

Sam Whitelock didn't go off for a test either after his head was collected by Swinton's shoulder and it has to surely be made compulsory that if a red card is shown for a dangerous high tackle, that the victim is taken off to be checked out.

But this is how it is now in the modern game – build all the PR and effort around one distinct high profile issue and then use it as the entire basis to proclaim the game is safer than it has ever been.

And that's what's happening at the moment – World Rugby is obsessed about being seen to punish high tackles and then delude itself that it's doing all it can to protect players.

Former Irish international Alan Quinlan sparked up earlier this week about comments Sir John Kirwan and Christian Cullen made on Sky Sports – saying they diminished the seriousness of the tackles and the damage they caused.

Ofa Tuungafasi of the All Blacks walks off after being red carded. Photo / Photosport

He's right to campaign for the impact of these sorts of tackles not to be diminished, but he's honestly being taken for a ride if he thinks brandishing red cards is all about player safety.

The legislation is half baked and it doesn't go far enough: the red card is mandatory but not the test?

That's plain bonkers, but not nearly as wildly stupid as not making it mandatory for players to wear a mouth guard in test football.

How can anyone take World Rugby seriously when they say they are out to make the game safer and yet they can't or won't inject one simple piece of legislation into the laws to require everyone to minimise their personal risk.

So two red cards in Brisbane one week and yet two weeks earlier, there was Ardie Savea at Eden Park celebrating his try, pearly white teeth on full view unprotected by a mouthguard.

So how sacrosanct does World Rugby truly believe the head to be when it allows players to ignore the multiple research findings which support the use of wearing a mouthguard as a simple, inexpensive and effective injury prevention tool?

What if Wright hadn't been wearing a mouthguard and half his teeth had been knocked out with the other half going through his own lip? Who would be liable for that and why aren't insurance companies kicking off refusing to cover test football until it's compulsory for players to take basic steps to protect themselves.

Caleb Clarke in action. Photo / Photosport

The conflict around safety is actually endless because last week in Sydney Caleb Clarke was tackled in the air. It was deemed a yellow card offence, not for any other reason but for the fact he didn't appear to badly hurt himself when he landed.

Two years ago Beauden Barrett was tackled in the air against France in Wellington and landed on his head. He was concussed and missed the next test, so the tackler Benjamin Fall was red carded on account of the way Barrett landed.

Here's where rugby goes off the scale with its inconsistency and silliness – Fall's red card was scrubbed by the judicial panel and he played the following week. They said there were mitigating circumstances – that he'd been nudged into Barrett's path and no one can make sense of how that makes the game safer.

Just as no one can understand how World Rugby stood back last year and saw Scott Barrett red carded for a high tackle on Michael Hooper and yet there were 21 easily identifiable occasions when the Wallabies neck rolled the All Blacks out of contact.

Ask any player what they truly fear and it is being picked up by the neck and thrown away – that's the moment their heart stops, worrying if they will ever walk away again but World Rugby doesn't see the PR value in stamping out that sort of stuff out.

A zero tolerance policy on high tackles has everyone's support but so much more needs to be done to actually believe that the game is safer than it ever was.