Rugby Australia CEO Andy Marinos has backed World Rugby's push to investigate the current review system as its head of match officials floats the potential of 'orange cards' for the World Cup.
A form of the yellow-card review system is currently being trialled in Super Rugby Pacific and could be fast-tracked into the global showpiece hosted by France this autumn.
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While players can still be given a red card for instances of foul play, the referee has the option of showing a yellow that can be upgraded to red on review by the television match official (TMO).
This was seen on Saturday when Reds lock Angus Blyth was initially yellow carded for a high tackle on Corey Toole, only to be upgraded to a 20-minute red card on review.
The idea is to speed up the game by reducing the number of on-field replays of incidents, while also dealing with contentious decisions such as the dismissal of England fullback Freddie Steward against Ireland last month.
Steward was controversially sent off for a dangerous challenge on Hugo Keenan during the March 18 Six Nations encounter in Dublin, with the card subsequently rescinded by a disciplinary panel.
"This is an operation being tested in Super Rugby," World Rugby's head of match officials Joel Jutge told the French rugby publication Midi Olympique.
"In the event of a 50-50 decision, the referee has the possibility of giving a yellow card so that the game can resume as soon as possible, while the TMO has 10 minutes of temporary expulsion to decide whether this should be turned into a permanent expulsion.
"We would give orange cards, clearly."
When asked about the potential, Marinos labelled the chats as 'progressive' as they look to speed up the game.
“They certainly are thinking about it and I think it’s really progressive," he said on Wednesday.
"We’ve also been very hesitant in a World Cup year to make law variations or changes that could be perceived to be fundamental to the game but in saying that, the information we have been passing back from round one of Super Rugby, just in terms of the other innovations we have proposed - speeding up the ball in play, speeding up the intensity of the game - has all been very well received in the north.
"The card interpretation has taken a bit of calibration. We’ve had a couple of on-field yellows that have either gone to off-field reds or stayed off-field yellows and then gone through a judicial process and gone into red. I think that’s good. That shows there is a system and a safety net that can be calibrated.
"World Rugby’s Phil Davies, the head of high performance, is out in Australia the next couple of weeks, so we’ll certainly engage with them and see where their headspace is at."
