Refereeing, head collisions and player safety again made the headlines on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup with a number of contentious incidents. The most high-profile came on Saturday when an England player was shown a red card for the fourth time this year, as Tom Curry was sent off early in his side’s win over Argentina, following a head-on-head collision with Juan Cruz Mallia. However, apparent inconsistency among officials irked many, especially on social media, with other incidents of head contact across the weekend not being punished as severely. Later in that same match, Santiago Carreras only received a yellow card despite his leap in attempting to charge down a George Ford kick seeing his hip make contact with the England No 10’s head. During South Africa’s impressive 18-3 win over Scotland, Jesse Kriel’s tackle on Jack Dempsey in which his head clattered into that of his Scottish opponent wasn’t even reviewed by the TMO and hasn’t subsequently been cited, while Chile captain Martin Sigren was only sin-binned despite a head-on-head collision while tackling a Japanese attacker. But what are the laws around head contact and high tackles that referees are following and how do they decide on the punishment? Here’s everything you need to know: What are World Rugby’s laws on head contact? Head-on-head contact in the tackle comes under Law 9 of the Laws of Rugby Union, which covers foul play. Law 9.11 dictates “Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others, including leading with the elbow or forearm, or jumping into, or over, a tackler” and Law 9.13 goes on to say “A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously. Dangerous tackling includes, but is not limited to, tackling or attempting to tackle an opponent above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders.” If a player breaks these laws and the act is deemed to be reckless or dangerous, then the referee is entitled to issue a yellow or red card. World Rugby also clarify the intent of the laws, stating in their guidelines that: “ Player welfare drives World Rugby’s decision making for zero tolerance of foul play, especially where head contact occurs. The focus must be on the actions of those involved, not the injury – the need for an HIA [a Head Injury Assessment] does not necessarily mean that there has been illegal head contact.” What are the punishments for head-on-head contact? Ok, this is where things get technical and debates start to occur. In March 2023, World Rugby issued their latest ‘head contact process law application guidelines’ to guide referees on whether foul play has occurred and how it should be punished. The referee has to go through a four-step process (detailed below) to determine the extent of the foul play and the sanction. The four steps are: Has head contact occurred? Was there any foul play? What was the degree of danger? Is there any mitigation? Step 1 (has head contact occurred?) is relatively straightforward, with head contact including the head and the face as well as the neck and throat area. If any head contact is made at all, we move on to Step 2. Step 2 (was there foul play?) is a touch more complex. The referees are told to consider whether the head contact was either intentional, reckless or avoidable – e.g. the defender is always upright. If it was, the tackler will be penalised and they move on to Step 3. However, if the head contact was deemed not to be foul play, the game continues. Step 3 (what was the degree of danger?) – judged from high to low – determines the initial punishment. A degree of high danger is judged on any of: direct contact rather than indirect, a high-force impact, a lack of control from the tackler, the incident occurring at high speed, the tackler leading with the head/shoulder/elbow/forearm or the tackle being reckless. If the referee judges there to be a high degree of danger, a red card will be shown. Meanwhile, low danger is judged as indirect contact, low force, low speed or no leading head/shoulder/forearm/swinging arm and a yellow card or even just a penalty to the opposition may be awarded. The final step, Step 4 (is there any mitigation?) determines whether the punishment can be reduced by one grade (i.e red card down to yellow card or yellow card down to just a penalty). Mitigation includes a sudden or significant drop in height or change in direction from ball carrier, a late change in dynamics due to another player in the contact area, a clear effort from the tackler to reduce their height or the tackler having no time to adjust. However, mitigation will never apply for intentional or always-illegal acts of foul play. What about the Foul Play Review Officer/Bunker review? Introduced for this World Cup was the Bunker review system. This allows the referee to issue a yellow card to a player, sending them to the sin-bin while play goes on, where a Foul Play Review Official (FPRO) will then take another look at the incident and determine if the yellow card should be upgraded to red, allowing the game to continue rather than a long stoppage to debate this. This is what happened to Curry against Argentina. The referee crosses their arms to indicate a Bunker review will take place. Once a player is in the sin-bin, the FPRO has up to eight minutes to review the decision and decide if it warrants upgrading to a red card. If not, the player will return to the field after their 10 minutes in the sin-bin has elapsed. Read More Tom Curry ban: How many games will England star miss after red card vs Argentina? ‘Ruining this World Cup’: TV presenter slams ‘grotesque’ refereeing as Wales beat Fiji George Ford plays the pragmatist as England finally come to the boil in Marseille cauldron South Africa explain use of signals during Scotland win National anthems are ruining the Rugby World Cup – they must be changed now Tom Curry banned after red card in Rugby World Cup against Argentina

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Ex-England youth international Ashleigh Plumptre insists it was a simple choice to switch allegiances to Nigeria, who on Monday night could knock her native country out of the World Cup. Leicestershire born and raised Plumptre, 25, has represented England from under-15 to under-23 level, but in January 2022 received FIFA’s approval to join the Super Falcons. Plumptre, who three weeks ago left Leicester after making 79 appearances for the Women’s Super League side, grew up with a half-Nigerian dad whose own father was born in Lagos. The defender said: “For me, it wasn’t difficult because I knew exactly what I wanted from football and I think that just came down from understanding who I am. On my journey, I’ve learned more about myself and I know what I want from football. “And I always say, ‘for me, it’s more than just playing.’ It sounds really weird but I always say I’m not obsessed with football, specifically, I’m obsessed with what I can learn about myself from playing. “And that’s why playing for Nigeria would probably be the most fulfilling thing I could do. “Not to say that my experiences were ever bad with England, they never were, but it was just more that my life went on a different course. “And I’m like, hmm, this is important for me, for my sister, for my family and for the young people who identify as being mixed heritage.” In an interview for the Nigerian Football Federation, Plumptre describes her younger half-sister Bayleigh Bisi as having a darker skin tone and different hair texture, which initially led to her more strongly resonating with their Nigerian heritage. Plumptre feels her own journey is entwined with her sibling’s – going so far as to say that the road to this World Cup, which saw world number 40 Nigeria oust Olympic champions Canada en route to the knockouts, is one shared by them both. She added: “I feel like people have different reasons for wanting to play for a different country. “For me, obviously, I grew up playing for England and I enjoyed my time with them but I always say it was always more of a life decision than a football decision. “I felt like I had a responsibility to try and play for Nigeria, if I could. “And that just came from experiences within family. I’ve got my younger sister, I used to coach an under-12s team with girls with mixed heritage girls, and I feel like I have a responsibility to learn about my heritage and I have the privilege of being able to play football and use that to be able to learn, so it came about like that for me.” Nigeria have contested all nine World Cups, reaching the quarter-finals in 1999. Should they wish to equal or better that feat they will have to find their way past European champions England. Plumptre is prepared to face the Lionesses, a side which includes several former team-mates. She said: “I was like, ‘it’s gonna end up that way’. I know a lot of the players, I grew up playing with a lot of them, play against them. So I would completely relish that opportunity. I would love to play them.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Harry Kane puts speculation to one side with four goals in Tottenham friendly Dozens of triathletes stuck down with diarrhoea and vomiting after ‘swimming in s**t’ Finn Russell expects different challenge from full-strength France next week

Republic of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny is refusing to give up on Euro 2024 qualification despite seeing his side slip to a damaging defeat in Greece. Kenny admitted Ireland have given themselves “a mountain to climb” if they are to get out of Group B after losing both of their opening fixtures following Friday night’s 2-1 reverse in Athens, but he remains defiant ahead of Gibraltar’s visit to the Aviva Stadium on Monday evening. Asked if the task is now near-impossible, he said: “It’s only the second game. We’ve given ourselves a mountain to climb. “At the moment we’ve just got to get ourselves ready for Monday, a home game, nearly a full stadium, we have to give them a victory and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.” Ireland fell behind to Tasos Bakasetas’ 15th-minute penalty, awarded for handball by Callum O’Dowda after a VAR review, but levelled before the break when Nathan Collins fired home from Evan Ferguson’s flick-on, again following a check. But they were caught again within four minutes of the restart when Giorgos Masouras struck, and the visitors’ misery was complete in stoppage time when Matt Doherty was sent off for pushing Liverpool defender Kostas Tsimikas during an ugly scuffle. Kenny said: “We didn’t play as well as we would have wanted. Greece were the much better side in the first half overall. They had more control than we would have wanted, they played well. “That can happen away from home for international teams, but you’ve got to defend better than we did, see it out and that’s what hurt us in the end. “It was just a really poor second goal to give away. I can’t believe we gave it away to be honest. That’s hurt us. We were still in the game and could have drawn the game – but it might have flattered us. “I’m very disappointed with the sending off, it seemed very harsh, Matt got involved to get people out, but he didn’t touch his face, he touched his chest. There was too much made of it with the player going down, but there was no facial contact.” While Ireland will have to lick their wounds and prepare for Gibraltar, Gus Poyet and his players head for France and a game the Uruguayan sees as a free-hit. He said: “I think we both knew – we were depending a lot on France and the Netherlands – but between the two, maybe one of the two, [Ireland] and us, one maybe will have a chance to go out fighting. “To be able to be there, we needed to beat each other. If not, then you have no chance because then you depend on them as well. “Obviously you need to also do well against the Netherlands, but especially this game, you must win it. If you think you’re going to win the other ones, then you are not realistic, so that was, for me, a must-win game for both teams. “Obviously we were lucky enough to win it and that gives us a platform now, depending on what happens on Monday. In September, we are going to be second because we are there. “It gives us then the feeling to go to France in a different way because now we have got six points. It’s a different game with six points than one and if you don’t get something, you’re out, so it was very, very important.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Michael O’Neill: Northern Ireland ‘angry and upset’ after disallowed equaliser Wales’ Euro 2024 qualifying defeat to Armenia a necessary ‘slap’ – boss Rob Page Sam Curran claims five as Surrey beat Somerset in top-of-the-table showdown

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