The New Zealand lock was sent marching before the end of the first 40 against South Africa at Twickenham

New Zealand second row Scott Barrett was sent off in peculiar fashion after picking up his second yellow card in 25 minutes against South Africa at Twickenham.

The 29-year-old was originally sent to the sin bin after just 14 minutes after Matt Carley had put the All Blacks on a final warning for consistently infringing in the red zone. Barrett took out scrum-half Faf de Klerk at a ruck around the halfway line and went for ten minutes in the bin.

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He was soon followed by his captain Sam Cane barely a minute later for a fourth maul infringement as the Springboks tried to impose their power game.

Barrett returned in the 24th minute but just 14 minutes later he was shown a second yellow card and thus a red after a dangerous clearout on Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx.

He now has the unfortunate record of being the first All Black to have been sent off twice.

English referee Carley showed Barrett a second yellow while also motioning for the clearout to be put on review. With it being a second yellow, Barrett was guaranteed a red card regardless of whether or not the new TMO Bunker thought his second offence was worthy of being upgraded.

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However, the lock may now face disciplinary action and could miss New Zealand’s blockbuster World Cup opener against France in two weeks. Barrett’s poor disciplinary record – he was also sent off in Super Rugby Pacific last year – will also likely count against him when it comes to potential mitigation in the case of a ban.

New Zealand thought they had got their first points of the evening through a Will Jordan try late on in the first period, however the TMO intervened to spot a knock-on in the build-up and the try was chalked off. Instead South Africa went in 14-0 up at half-time thanks to tries from Siya Kolisi and Kurt-Lee Arendse.

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