The five South African franchises competing in the Super 14 have been responsible for 50% of the yellow and red cards issued to date this season – and the Lions as a team and Bulls flank Deon Stegmann as an individual are the frontrunners in these two categories.

With two of the three red cards in the competition going to Stegmann and Rory Kockott of the Sharks, 27 of the 54 cards (50%) so far issued by referees this year have involved South African players.

The third red card was shown to Highlanders skipper Jimmy Cowan.

Four of the five sides carded most in the season are South African with the Highlanders equalling the poor disciplinary record of the Sharks and Bulls in numbers (six each) but not severity, as the two top South African franchises’ transgressions include red-card offences among their six cards.

Stegmann received his marching orders for a spear tackle and his two sin-binning offences were for repeated technical offences at the breakdown.

Kockott was sent off for punching in Saturday’s match against the Highlanders.

The Lions lag on the log but lead the card race. Their players have been sin-binned nine times – four more than the Sharks and the Bulls, who both have red cards on their records, for a total of six offences.

The Lions’ Ernst Joubert (two yellows), Sharks scrumhalf Kockott (a red and a yellow) and Heinrich Brussow of the Cheetahs (two yellows) were the other South African players with more than one carding offence.

Read the rest of this entry »