Ireland U20's had a fairly disappointing start to this year's U20's Six Nations as they fell short at Musgrave Park to a strong England side, losing 19-3.
It was a frustrating night for Neil Doak's men as Ireland really struggled in attack to create anything all while England's superior power wore the Irish bodies down before a late penalty try from a maul sealed Ireland's fate.
One of the major talking points coming out of the match however was the 20-minute red card that was shown to England forward Junior Kpoku. The England star who currently plays for Racing 92 is one of England's brightest prospects, having become a regular starter for the Top 14 side in both domestic and European games. However Kpoku put his England side in trouble after just 12 minutes as he was shown red for his tackle on Ireland U20s out-half Sam Wisniewski.
Pour son carton rouge de 20 minutes reçu contre l’Irlande U20, Junior Kpoku a écopé de trois semaines de suspension.
Degré moyen de danger retenu (6 semaines), réduit de moitié avec les circonstances atténuantes (reconnaissance des faits, etc). pic.twitter.com/XZ6xA2kVjp
— Gauthier Baudin (@GauthierBaudin) February 3, 2025
For the Men's, Women's and U20's Six Nations tournaments this year the 20-minute red card has been trialed. It works similar to the black card in GAA where if a foul is deemed more than a yellow card but less than a full red card, the player will be sent off for 20 minutes and then their team can bring on a replacement for them.
It has been trialed is Super Rugby Pacific and during the Autumn Nation Series in 2024 and it's fair to say it's got a mixed reception, with many feeling that going down a player for 20 minutes isn't enough of a deterrent to change player's behaviour.
So after Kpoku received his card, England went down to 14 players for 20 minutes before being able to substitute on George Timmins in place of Kpoku and go back up to a full compliment of players. It was a decision that baffled many as they felt that there wasn't enough mitigation to warrant downgrading from a full red card.
Fans have been further dumbfounded since Thursday's match as Junior Kpoku has now been cited and suspended for 3 weeks for the tackle. The suspension started out at 6 weeks but after a guilty plea, apology and a clean record the ban was down graded to 3 weeks. It looks like the ban will be further reduced by a week if Kpoku completes a tackle school, which feels fairly lenient for a tackle that could've done some serious damage to Wisniewski.
3 weeks (more than likely 2 after tackle school) down from 6 for Kpoku for his red card Vs Ireland
So here's the one of the biggest issues with the 20 minute red card as is The on field sanction isn't strong & the post match sanction hasn't been increased to balance that out pic.twitter.com/APx95balij
— The 2nd Row (@the2ndRow) February 3, 2025
As the 2nd Row on Twitter says in the above post, the on-field decision isn't strong enough, especially if there's a further ban post-match.
It's fair to say that rugby is yet to find the right balance between protecting the players while making sure the sport is still an entertaining spectacle. It's a hard mix to blend in a contact sport and World Rugby have trialed new laws in the past and change the wording on laws to make things more clear for the refs and fans of what they want to see. However the latest law trialing has brought up more questions than answers.
Ireland U20s have the chance to get back on track after the defeat to England this Saturday, 8th February as they face Scotland in Edinburgh at 7:45 pm.