English Premiership to consider trial of rolling substitutions

ENGLAND’S Rugby Football Union will consider the introduction of rolling substitutions on a trial basis in the Guinness Premiership in a bid to eradicate cheating from the sport.

The potentially divisive proposal is one of 16 recommendations published by an RFU task force yesterday following a month-long review into the state of the game following the ‘Bloodgate’ scandal at Harlequins.

The 13-man panel, which included former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio and Twickenham’s elite rugby director Rob Andrew, found no evidence cheating is systemic in rugby.

But there were enough incidences of “inappropriate behaviour” to suggest that action needs to be taken to close loopholes in the regulations, such as that which allowed the ‘Bloodgate’ situation to occur.

The panel received evidence from 129 professional players, 10% of whom had either seen or participated in the faking of a blood injury at club level.

That figure rises to 41% for players who had either witnessed club-mates feign injuries to force uncontested scrums or done it themselves.

Rolling substitutions would help eradicate both those issues and from a player welfare perspective they would also assist medics in diagnosing potential concussion.

Dallaglio said: “There is a recommendation that once this has been discussed by the relevant governing bodies that we introduce a trial next year at the top level, which would mean the Guinness Premiership.

“The safety of the players is paramount. We are involved in a high-impact, high-collision, fast game.

“As laws currently stand, a medical officer only has 90 seconds to assess a player who takes a bang on the head. If he is not bleeding he has to leave the field permanently and that is not in the best interests of the game at large.

“I have been involved in situations where it would have been far better for me to be removed from the game and be assessed. We are tempting teams to go beyond the laws by certain loopholes.

“It needs to be discussed and it needs input from people who would know how fundamentally it would change the game. But you have to say that from a safety aspect the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.”

The RFU panel want the International Rugby Board to establish guidelines on how much blood is required before a player has to be temporarily replaced to undergo treatment.

On a domestic level, the RFU will create a specific regulation covering cheating, gamesmanship and foul play with “severe sanctions” associated.

“We want to remove the temptation for cheating,” said RFU chief executive Francis Baron.