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With the knockout stages in sight, losing a key player to a red card could now completely derail a team’s tournament chances
Ten red cards or subsequent bans in Japan has dwarfed anything that’s happened before in a Rugby World Cup. However, get a ban now that goes into the knockouts and a body blow could turn into a grievous one. How many of the top teams could go into a quarter-final fully confident without their best player banned? England without Billy or Faz? New Zealand without Beauden or Ardie? Wales missing Alun Wyn or Gareth?
Now I’m not saying the bans and cards earlier in the group stages didn’t have an impact but the stakes are now considerably higher. Continue reading...