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Nigel Owens (rugby referee)

Nigel Owens explains red and yellow card summer Test controversies and says blame game on referees has to stop

What a thrilling weekend of rugby we have in store, perfectly set up by the success of the Six Nations teams last Saturday.

I can't remember a finale to June or July summer tours quite like this, where each series is evenly poised at 1-1 with everything to play for in the final game.

Normally New Zealand would be 2-0 up by this stage, but Ireland responded brilliantly to a first Test defeat by bouncing back to level things heading into their Wellington decider.

READ MORE: Gwyn Jones' concerns about Pivac's 'slow motion' Wales who are 'devoid of creativity'

England, last time they toured Australia, were already 2-0 up against the Wallabies. I actually refereed what was meant to be the decider, a third Test thriller in Sydney which Eddie Jones' men won 44-40. Back in Sydney this time, it's win or bust for the two teams.

Wales, if we're honest, tend to be two down and looking to restore pride in the final match. Not this time. The quality of their second Test against South Africa wasn't the finest, but for sheer excitement the last 20 minutes were wonderful drama and it was fabulous to see Wayne Pivac's team come through to make it 1-1 in their own three-Test summer showdown.

It makes for a fascinating Saturday afternoon when Wales go into battle in Cape Town, seeking to shock the Boks once more. Let's remember Scotland too; they lost the first Test in Argentina but battled back splendidly in the second and again will be looking to return home victorious from the third match.

With so much at stake, I just hope everyone is talking afterwards about the excellent rugby on show, rather than refereeing decisions. It's never a good thing when the focus is on the man in the middle so much and the only downside for me has been people questioning what's happened in some of the matches to date.

An awful lot has been made about yellow cards awarded for deliberate knock-ons in the Australia versus England games, and indeed the incident involving Dan Biggar as Wales agonisingly lost their first Test against South Africa right at the end.

The truth is the referees were correct in their judgement here. People need to stop and think for a moment - stop blaming the referee for enforcing the law as it should be, and instead question why players are continually putting themselves in this position, one hand out, when there isn't really a strong prospect of actually catching the ball, if we're being truthful.

It's high risk, high reward - get it right and you stop an opposition danger move and potential try; best case scenario is you even have the opportunity of racing clear for an intercept score of your own.

Get it wrong however, and most have this summer, and there's a real danger of being pinged for a deliberate knock on and an ensuing yellow card. If you go with one hand, not a natural position from which to gather the ball, there has to be a strong chance of getting it wrong.

Why take that risk? Why put yourself in that position? And why blame the referee?

It's not the referee who's putting one hand out trying to prevent a pass, it's the players, who, given what has happened in recent matches, perhaps just to be a little careful with their actions, which have put the referee in a position where he has to make a decision. Yes of course we must understand it's a natural reaction of a player to sometimes put his hand out and prevent a pass, but the law and directive to officials is quite clear on how to police it.

The other issue that has dominated the headlines are the red cards given to first Wallaby lock Darcy Swain against England, then New Zealand front-rower Angus Ta'avao for head-on-head contact with Garry Ringrose.

Ireland's victory last weekend was stupendous, but unfortunately everybody seemed to be talking afterwards about Ta'avao's sending off, whether it was harsh, how it supposedly ruined the game as a spectacle - also should New Zealand have been down to 12 men and why was Ardie Savea singled out and not allowed to come back on. The chatter wasn't fair on Ireland, who produced some excellent rugby, as we know they can.

The reality of the situation is that under current World Rugby guidelines, protocols brought in to avoid collisions to the head and to rightly try to reduce concussion, Jaco Peyper had no option but to brandish red.

That said, and this is most certainly not having a go at Peyper, nor anybody in fact, I did have a bit of sympathy for Ta'avao and the position New Zealand were put in, having to play the bulk of the game with 14 men.

This was a completely different scenario to Swain's sending off in the first Australia v England Test for a deliberate head butt on Johnny Hill. The England man contributed to what happened by pulling Swain's hair; if he himself had been red carded, I'd have had no complaints.

But the point to make, is this. Swain's actions were deliberate foul play. It was an act of recklessness, he deserved to go. This was as crystal clear as it gets, an easy decision for the referee.

Given the current protocols, Peyper also had to send off Ta'avao, but this is where there is something of a grey area which the powers-that-be perhaps need to clear up, if possible. Unlike Swain, his action wasn't deliberate or reckless. He did not charge at Ringrose looking to make contact with the head and hurt him. There was no intent.

What happened was as Ringrose stepped inside, Ta'avao changed his own body position to try to tackle him and the two men collided in what I thought was an accidental rugby incident. Maybe you'd say well Ta'avao should have just let Ringrose go then, or dipped to get lower to tackle him - but to be expected to be asked to pull out of challenges in the heat of fierce Test match battle, or to try and change your body height in half a second, is an awful lot easier said than done.

World Rugby are absolutely correct to try to clamp down on head contact, with HIA procedures that have been brought in and the need to do everything we can to stop concussions. But somehow they have to find a way of differentiating between something that's an accident, a little carelessness, but where there is no malice or intent, and an act of sheer recklessness where there is no care shown whatsoever, which is what we had with Swain.

Maybe another look at the laws, different directives to the referee, might be the answer. We do need to try to get the tackles lower, I've been saying that myself for many years, but as I say Ta'avao's actions were one of a man who'd been beaten by a step and who merely tried to alter course himself to try to tackle a player.

As things stand, the World Rugby directive to referees is very black and white, but could allowances be made for the kind of accidental challenge I'm talking of?

If the guidance is to be changed, it probably needs to be almost with immediate effect. If we have a World Cup final next year and a player is sent off for the kind of incident we saw with Swain, no-one could argue about the referee spoiling the showpiece game, watched by millions and millions across the globe. The player would have brought it upon himself, his team would be punished as a result. Fair enough.

If, however, we have the kind of accidental moment we saw with Ta'avao in such a high profile game, and a side has to go to 14 players early on, then I think there could be an issue.

The old chestnut of an orange card, a replacement after 20 minutes for a sent off player, wouldn't work either, because Swain had no rights whatsoever to have a team-mate return to the field instead of him after 20 minutes, whereas I had sympathy for Ta'avao and his case.

Referees are right in the thick of the action, they know when something is deliberate and when something is accidental. Perhaps a little more latitude needs to be given to them to make the call as they see fit? Their judgement would need to be trusted and most of the time I feel they'd get it right.

There is a grey area here which is a little problematic and I hope it doesn't arise again this weekend. Let's hope instead we are celebrating and talking about some epic rugby being played, because that would be the perfect finale to a brilliant summer of international rugby.

READ MORE:

Nigel Owens' personal memories of Phil Bennett and how Wales legend first got him involved with rugby

Nigel Owens: Why it is so difficult refereeing in South Africa

Wales World Cup star without a club at 26 after challenging times and illness before new Welsh call-up

The renaissance of Dan Lydiate - How Welsh rugby's great gladiator has made it back and the startling form he's showing

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