This card handed out by the referee will be met with a smile, not disdain.
In a new initiative by the Otago Rugby Referees Association and Lone Star Cafe and Bar in Dunedin, green cards will be issued by referees in Dunedin at every game.
Red and yellow cards on the field mean someone has done something naughty.
The new green card rewards something positive.
The cards will be given to the player, coach or spectator who the referee believes behaves with the highest standard of fair play or sportsmanship during the game.
This may be a player conducting himself well and playing to the rules, a coach encouraging fair play and acting in a positive manner, or a spectator lending support to both sides and supporting the match officials.
It is also not just the satisfaction of getting a green card.
The recipient's stomach also gets a reward. All green card holders are entitled to a $20 meal voucher at the Lone Star in Dunedin.
The cards are not just for premier club games.
They are for every game officiated by a member of the association, in Dunedin, which on some weeks can go right down to controlling primary school grades.
Otago Rugby Referees Association chairman Jim Thomson said he believed the scheme was a first for any province in New Zealand, if not the world.
He said it encouraged people to support referees and to get in behind fair play.
Thomson said the game could not happen without referees and they were a vital part of the games.
Lone Star Dunedin owner Nick Nilsen said the company had supported grass-roots sport in Dunedin for some time and this was an extension of that. He thought the card idea was great and referees needed to be supportive.
''They are sort of like parking wardens, really,'' he joked.
The investment was significant - about $1500 a week for nearly 20 weeks - but it was money well spent, he said.
