Steve Borthwick, the Leicester Tigers head coach, has revealed he would be against the introduction of a 20-minute red card in rugby union, with Bristol and Sale directors of rugby Pat Lam and Alex Sanderson on Tuesday saying they would back the potential new trial.

As revealed by Telegraph Sport on Monday, World Rugby will consider the further roll-out of a 20-minute red card, which is currently being used in Super Rugby Pacific in the southern hemisphere, in the future. Under the terms of the law, the offending player can be replaced at the end of a 20-minute period.

Borthwick’s comments came days after Guy Porter’s controversial red card for Leicester against Clermont but, despite that incident, Borthwick stressed that he still supported the existing yellow and red-card format.

“Right now, I sit with the traditional view that it’s what we understand as a red card,” he added. “A red card, for my whole career, has been a player leaving the pitch and doesn’t return during the game. That’s the way I’ve been brought up and what I’d stick with.”

Borthwick noted that Porter’s sending off, following a collision with opposing back-rower Fritz Lee, encapsulated the fine margins between accidental incidents and potentially “game-defining” red cards.

Porter faces a hearing on Wednesday to determine whether he faces a ban. For that reason, Borthwick would not comment on specifics or whether Porter would contest the charge, but did praise the reaction of Tigers, who extended their lead by seven points with 14 men over the final 20 minutes.   

“You’re dead right with how tight [the margins] are and I’ll say that I was really pleased with how the players adapted on the pitch,” Borthwick said. “Going down to 14 men, they were actually able to extend the score through that period. I thought that was really good by the team.   

“That’s about to go to a hearing, so I don’t want to comment specifically upon the incident but the nature of these incidents are tight and the referees have some tough calls to make.

“Ultimately, we don’t want to be in that position because we don’t want to be losing players and we don’t want players getting hurt on the pitch. But those moments can be almost game-defining. How you adapt, how you train so you understand what it is to play against a team that are a man down, how you play as a team a man down – those are all important considerations.”

Lam, for his part, described the move towards 20-minute red cards as a good idea. Bristol have been dealt two red cards in the Premiership this season, with wing Ratu ‘Siva’ Naulago sent off against both London Irish and Bath for high tackles. In the second instance, the Bears were leading 21-0 at The Rec before subsiding to a 29-27 defeat in dramatic style.