David Carrigy
Head of External and Member Relations, IRB
August 19th 2008
There is a growing concern amongst the medical profession, coaches, players, administrators and judiciary about the conduct of players when entering rucks and mauls and when clearing out players on the fringes of tackles, rucks and mauls which is considered dangerous. A DVD has been produced that demonstrates such actions and includes examples of illegal and/or foul play.
The DVD will be circulated with a hard copy of this correspondence.
The relevant parts of Law are very specific as detailed below:
Law 10.4 (i) Players must not charge into a ruck or maul without binding onto a
player in the ruck or maul.
Law 16.2 (b) A player joining a ruck must bind onto the ruck with at least one
arm around the body of a teammate, using the whole arm.
Law 17.4 (c) Players joining the Maul
Players joining a maul must do so from behind the foot of the hindmost teammate in the maul. The player may join alongside this player. If the player joins the maul from the opponents side or in front of the hindmost teammate the player is offside.
In addition the Aide Memoire for the IRB Panel referees enacted at RWC 2007 stated:
• Zero tolerance to players who charge into rucks and mauls without binding.
• Zero tolerance to players who clear out opponents not involved in ruck and maul.
Match Officials, Citing Officials and Judicial Officers are requested to be vigilant and apply Law and appropriate sanctions when players are involved in dangerous play of this nature.
