Man Off Regulation

 

You must know which competition you are refereeing.  This is usually indicated against the fixture in ‘Who’s the Ref?’

a) If you referee any RFU leagues, down to and including Gloucester 2, then you need to apply the ’Man Off Rule’.

Basically, if at the second occasion a team needs to replace a front row player, causing uncontested scrums, because of a Red card (permanently), Yellow card (for 10 minutes) or for injury (until player returns, if fit enough)(1) and the team are unable to do so, they have to drop a player from the team, leaving them with 14 on the park.  They must have 8 in the scrum.

The purpose is to stop teams seeking uncontested scrums for the wrong reason.

Full detail is at www.swrugby.co.uk, ‘Guidance’ Front Row replacement Guidance’ and see ‘Structure’ for which leagues this applies to.

(a) Remember your absolute right in Law (Law 3.23) to ‘Recognise and Remove’ a player who has or is suspected of having concussion.

(b) If you are refereeing Gloucester Reserve/District leagues, these leagues are ‘Deregulated’ and the ’man off rule’ does not apply.

Details at Gloucestershire RFU website (www.grfu.org), Competitions, Regulations and Entry forms