All Black Jordie Barrett fails to learn Rugby World Cup lessons after ‘horrendous’ red card

Melbourne, Australia. 03rd Mar, 2024. Jordie Barrett of the Hurricanes along the bench during the Super Rugby Pacific Round 2 match between the Hurricanes and the Queensland Reds at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AAP Image/James Ross) NO

Jordie Barrett endured an inauspicious milestone match after he was sent off on his 100th Hurricanes appearance on Sunday.

The All Blacks star received his marching orders for a poor attempted hit on Reds flyer Jordan Petaia midway through the second period.

Barrett was far too upright in the tackle and his shoulder duly connected with the head of Petaia in their Super Rugby Pacific clash.

The tackle

He was initially yellow carded but, after a bunker review, it was unsurprisingly upgraded to a red and left the Hurricanes down to 14.

Onlookers were in agreement that it was a clear cut call with one fan writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Terrible tackle from Jordie Barrett, didn’t even attempt to drop his body height, looked horrendous.”

Progressive Rugby, who are continually looking to improve player welfare in the sport, added: “No one wants to see Jordie Barrett getting sent off on his 100th appearance for Hurricanes, but if you stay that high you run the risk of a red card.”

As radio presenter Martin Devlin put it, Barrett did not ‘intend’ to hit Petaia high but that he was always going to pay the price with the laws as they are.

“Yip that’s a red card unfortunately Jordie Barrett. Them’s the rules,” Devlin wrote.

“Not intentional. Not foul play. Just too upright in the tackle, contact made to the head, game changing. Now we gotta watch 14 on 15. Sucks.”

Fortunately for the centre, the remaining 14 players managed to rise to the occasion and take the game into extra time.

The match was level at 26-26 when Barrett was sent off before Matt Faessler and Cam Roigard traded tries as the teams remained locked at 33-33 after the 80 minutes.

That meant the next score would win the game and it was the Hurricanes who claimed the victory when Pasilio Tosi went over for the ‘golden point’.

History of reds

The Hurricanes have started this season with successive victories but will surely be without Barrett for the next few weeks.

His red card may have come over four months after the Rugby World Cup final, which saw captain Sam Cane sent off for a high shot, but Barrett doesn’t appear to have learned the lesson from that incident.

The number of All Blacks being sent off in Tests have increased significantly over the past few years. Prior to Sonny Bill Williams’ red in 2017, only two New Zealand players had received their marching orders, but there have been several since, including the youngest Barrett brother in 2021 – although that was subsequently rescinded.

Cane’s was ultimately the most costly as his first-half red card left them without their captain for a significant part of the World Cup showpiece, which they lost 12-11 to the Springboks.

SANZAAR have taken a laxer approach to high shots and there have been various complaints about World Rugby’s guidelines from New Zealand pundits, while Super Rugby introduced their own law – the 20-minute red card – to negate the impact of these incidents on the offending team.