'I agree with the decision. Unfortunately, it has to be a red'

Scotland international Duncan Taylor picked up the first red card of his career when sent off just eight minutes into Saracens’ Gallagher Premiership match at Northampton on Saturday. The Londoners were 7-0 ahead when play restarted with a goal line drop out after David Ribbans had a try ruled out for dropping the ball in the act of grounding.

With the Saints taking the catch, the Franklin’s Gardens hosts were looking to create and it was on the 10-metre line when out-half Fin Smith was soon clattered into by Taylor. The severity of the collision initially went unnoticed as referee Wayne Barnes signalled a scrum after a knock-on in the tackle.

TMO David Rose took a closer look, though, at what had happened and he brought it to the attention of Barnes, who was refereeing his 270th Premiership match. Here is how their conversation quickly unfolded:

World Rugby – Keep Rugby Clean

World Rugby – Keep Rugby Clean

Rose: We are going to have to have a look at this tackle on No10.

Barnes: Why? What are you telling me?

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Rose: We have got head-on-head contact with the Saracens player on the No10 from Northampton.

Barnes: We have got foul play, we have got a player who is upright, it’s direct head-on-head, he is active in the tackle, so we are starting a high degree of danger which is certainly a red card. I don’t see any mitigation for a drop or a step. Did anyone see any mitigation?

Rose: He has got a clear line of sight, Wayne. There is no drop.

Barnes immediately brandished the red card to Taylor and ex-England international Ugo Monye, who was commentating on the match for BT Sport, remarked: “Desperately disappointing for him… I agree with the decision. Unfortunately, it has to be a red.

“It’s high of course because you have got head-on-head but when you look at Duncan Taylor’s actual position of tackling, while there is not a drop in height by Fin Smith, he [Taylor] is almost on his knees making that tackle and he compromises himself by how low he gets. But when it is direct and you have got a clear line of sight, it is always going to be red.”

Down a player for the rest of the half, Saracens went in trailing at the interval 10-19 after a three-try Northampton riposte but they rallied to only eventually lose 29-38.

Ben Kay, another ex-England player working for BT Sport, shared his thoughts at the break on the red card. “It all went pear-shaped with this challenge. It looked fairly innocuous at the beginning but when he [Barnes] saw the replay, it was clear there was head-on-head.

“I feel a bit for Duncan Taylor because people at home often talk about, ‘Well, why don’t players just tackle lower?’ You saw there he was actually going to tackle someone else and the ball then shifted.

“When your momentum is all going down one way and you have suddenly got to go the other way, the only way to stop that momentum when you are running at full tilt is to almost come up and pull away from it. That is why he was upright when he made the tackle.

“With how the game is refereed, how the referees are being told to (referee), Wayne Barnes explained very clearly it was a red card.”