A rugby union yellow card can be awarded for dangerous/foul play that doesn’t meet the threshold for a red card, as well as more technical offences such as deliberate knock-ons. A yellow card results in a player being sent to the sin bin.

The sin bin is rugby union’s answer to the naughty step. It sees the offending party banished from the field of play to spend 10 minutes sitting on the sidelines. Their team remains a player down until the referee ushers them back into the action.

If a scrum is awarded while a hooker or prop is in the sin bin, their team must replace another player with a front-row specialist (if they have one available on the bench) to allow contested scrums to take place.

A brief history of rugby union yellow cards

Although the sin bin has been part of rugby league since the early ’80s, it didn’t become a permanent fixture in the 15-player game until the early 21st century.

When rugby union yellow cards were first introduced they were merely used as a warning – much as they are in football – with nobody having to take an enforced time out. England back-rower Ben Clarke became the first player to receive a rugby union yellow card in an international match when the referee decided he’d stamped on Ireland wing Simon Geoghegan during the 1995 Five Nations.

Two years later, during a 1997 Tri-Nations game between South Africa and Australia, Wallabies centre James Holbeck became the first player to receive (temporary) marching orders via a rugby union yellow card. The sin bin made its Six Nations debut in 2000 (on an experimental basis), and was written into rugby’s laws the following year. It’s been part of the game ever since.

What offences warrant a yellow card in rugby?

Foul play is the most obvious route to the sin bin – for example, a high or no-arms tackle that isn’t considered dangerous enough to warrant a straight red.

Players can also be sin-binned for technical (or tactical) offences comparable to professional fouls in football, such as deliberate knock-ons.

Sometimes a rugby union yellow card is used to punish an entire team’s persistent foul play. If, say, the officials have issued a warning that the pack is repeatedly killing the ball while under the cosh in defence, the next offender “takes one for the team” and is binned.

Players will also find themselves in the bin if they’re deemed responsible for conceding a penalty try.

What happens if a player gets more than one yellow card in a match?

Two yellow cards – even if both are for relatively minor technical offences – automatically trigger a red, and the player is sent off. If, however, a disciplinary panel decides that both sin bin-worthy acts were sufficiently low-key, the sending off can constitute sufficient punishment, with no further suspension required.

In many leagues (including the Gallagher Premiership), a player who receives three yellow cards over the course of a season will find themselves hauled in front of a disciplinary panel.

What about offences on the borderline between a yellow card and a red?

World Rugby introduced the so-called TMO bunker ahead of the 2023 World Cup to help officials make the right call. Under the new system, a referee can award a yellow card, while simultaneously referring borderline incidents to the Foul Play Review Official. The FRPO then has up to eight minutes to use the video technology at their disposal to determine whether the sin-binning was sufficient, or whether the yellow card should be upgraded to a red. The bunker review was introduced to both improve decision making and to reduce the duration of on-field deliberations.

World Rugby has also been trialling a 20-minute red card across various tournaments, including this year’s Rugby Championship where Argentina’s Pablo Matera received his marching orders against South Africa. Under the proposed rule change the red-carded player still sits out the rest of the match, but they can be replaced with a substitute after 20 minutes. The governing body hopes that the new system will preserve the spectacle of the game by keeping player numbers equal for longer. Even so, plenty of major stakeholders in the game – including French rugby’s governing body, the FFR – are sceptical about the plans.