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Player being sent off.

evonut

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Hey Guys

In an U19s game today the centre of the oposition team was sent off for a spear tackle. It was justified and I think he deserved it!
What i have a problem with is that cause the centre was no longer there the team put their blind side flanker there to fill the gap which left them 7 players for scrums and lineouts. The ref then proceeded to tell my team that we needed to reduce the number of players in our lineout and scrums!

Is this correct?
Now cause we didn't have the most dominant scrum we suffered and we turned over a lot of ball at scrum times which gave them the advantage the whole game? Now shouldn't we have had the advantage of having the extra man? If they chose to put the extra man into the backline shouldn't we have been allowed to have 8 men in the scrum?
They had 8 forwards on the paddock but not in the scrum/lineouts....

Any help on this would be good.

Cheers
Paul
 
**waits for smartcooky**
(He is the law guru evo)

But from my knowledge I don't think this is allowed they must play with either a man out of the centre or concede the man in the scrum..but at u19 level you can't have an extra man as far as I am aware so the ruling should probably have been them just sticking to the 8 man scrums and conceding the man in the centre
 
Hmm this is a strange scenario. These are the rules if a player in the forwards is sent off:

Law 3.3 states: "A Union may authorise matches to be played with fewer than fifteen players in each team. When that happens, all the Laws of the Game apply except that each team must have at least five players in the scrum at all times."

Law 20.1(e) states a scrum must have: "Number of players: eight. A scrum must have eight players from each team. All eight players must stay bound to the scrum until it ends. Each front row must have three players in it, no more and no less. Two locks must form the second row.
Sanction: Penalty kick
Exception: When a team is reduced to fewer than fifteen for any reason, then the number of players of each team in the scrum may be similarly reduced. Where a permitted reduction is made by one team, there is no requirement for the other team to make a similar reduction. However, a team must not have fewer than five players in the scrum.
Sanction: Penalty kick
"

Therefore if this was a seniors game the referee would be wrong to tell you to remove a player. However, as you are under-19s special rules apply:

Law 20.1(f) states: "A team must have fewer than eight players in its scrum when the team cannot field eight suitably trained players in its scrum due to either the team not fielding a complete team, or a forward player being sent off or temporarily suspended for foul play, or a forward player leaving the field because of injury...

...If a team is incomplete and it cannot field eight suitably trained players in its scrum, the scrum formation must be as follows:
If a team is without one forward player, then both teams must use a 3-4 formation (i.e. no No.8).
"

That is the rule if a forward was sent off. However, because a centre was sent off and they voluntarily moved a player I am unsure what the rules are. To be honest they are probably completely within their rights to move a player there. You can do it at seniors level but they have exploited the loophole at u19s level that the opposing team must have an equal number of forwards so therefore the referee then had to tell you to remove a player. Hope that helps :)
 
Up to U19's scrums must be equal but after that it is the teams choice.
 
Cheers for the replies guys.

From what i can gather, we got a swift one pulled on us! My understanding of the rule is as long as you have 8 trained forwards on the field, you must play 8 man scrums.
If a forward is sent from the field then we play 7 man scrums.

Thanks guys.
 

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