Old Crossleyans RUFC Disciplinary Policy
Disciplinary Policy
1. Discipline Old Crossleyans RUFC (the Club) has a duty of care to all its members and visitors to the club, its opponents players and supporters, and to the general public when away representing the Club. The Club will not tolerate any violent or illegal actions by its members. Any such incidents will be dealt with by the Disciplinary Committee and may result in suspension or expulsion from the Club.
2. Disciplinary Committee Mandate
2.1 The Club Disciplinary Policy shall comply with the current disciplinary policies of the England Rugby Football Union (the RFU) and Yorkshire Rugby Union.
2.2 The General Committee delegates the prime responsibility for discipline matters to the Disciplinary Committee.
2.3 The Disciplinary Committees jurisdiction covers all incidents, both on-field and off-field.
2.4 The members of the Disciplinary Committee will be elected by the General Committee, led by the Discipline Secretary and will be responsible for maintaining and effectively implementing this Disciplinary Policy. The Disciplinary Committee shall consist of at least four members. The Discipline Secretary, plus an official from each of the following sections, Adult Men, Women and Girls and Junior Boys.
2.5 The Disciplinary Secretary shall be responsible for keeping a record of all disciplinary matters both on-field and off-field and will report the status to the General Committee on a regular basis.
3. On-field Disciplinary Matters
3.1 On-field refers to incidents involving one or more players participating in a game of rugby.
3.2 A game is defined as any league, cup, exhibition, representative or friendly game representing the Club. The Disciplinary Committee has the sole discretion as to what constitutes a legitimate game.
3.3 Each team captain (all senior sides‚ men and women) and team manager (mini and junior sides, men and women) shall be responsible for advising the Discipline Secretary of any Red Cards issued to players or any violent or illegal conduct by any players for whom they are responsible.
3.4 Where a player has been sent off from the field of play, i.e. has received a Red Card, the person designated in 3.3 must notify the Discipline Secretary within 12 hours of the incident occurring. The Discipline Secretary shall ensure a hearing is held, as soon as possible after the incident.
3.5 The Discipline Secretary shall inform the Discipline Secretary of Yorkshire Rugby in accordance with its procedure.
3.6 The Discipline Secretary, or his nominated representative, and the player(s) shall attend the formal hearing as required by YRU and RFU.
3.7 Any act of violence on the field of play by a player, whether accompanied by a yellow or red card or not, may be brought to the attention of the Discipline Secretary by any spectator, coach, referee, or other player, in writing within 7 (seven) days of the incident. The Discipline Secretary will then investigate any claims and if required shall ensure a hearing is held, as soon as possible after the incident.
3.8 The sanction for any incident as defined in 3.3 or 3.5 above will as a minimum be in accordance with the recommended sanctions as published by the RFU. The Club reserves the right to suspend or expel players from the Club who commit violent or illegal acts or repeatedly transgress the laws of the game.
4. Off-Field Disciplinary Matters
4.1 Off-field refers to:
Any incident or contravention of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Club by a Club member or visitor to the Club, while on the Club premises, or by a Club member away from Club premises while representing the Club, where the offending party is not directly involved in a rugby game;
Any incident where a member representing the Club brings the Club into disrepute.
4.2 A complaint may be lodged in connection with this type of incident by any party who is financially liable as a result of the incident or by any member of the Club.
4.3 All such complaints shall be forwarded to the Discipline Secretary in writing as soon as possible after the incident, but no later than fourteen (14) days. On receipt of the written complaint, if the Discipline Secretary deems the situation warrants, they shall convene a hearing to deal with the incident.
4.4 The Discipline Secretary may solicit any eyewitness accounts and or other documentation and enter same into the proceedings as evidence. The eyewitness accounts must be presented to the hearing either in person or in writing.
4.5 The Club Chairman reserves the right to suspend the accused parties from participating in any Club activity until such time as a proper hearing can be conducted.
5. Hearings
5.1 The Discipline Secretary will select a Disciplinary Panel for each hearing.
5.2 The Disciplinary Panel shall have as its members, the Discipline Secretary, plus an official from each of the following sections, Adult Men, Women and Girls and Junior Boys. The Crossleyans Club Chairman is barred from sitting on the panel see section 6, Appeals.
5.3 An individual appearing at a hearing or a member of the individuals family may not be selected as a member of the Disciplinary Panel at the same hearing.
5.4 All hearings will be recorded.
6. Appeals
6.1 The Crossleyans Club Chairman shall handle all appeals.
6.2 An appeal may be instigated by the disciplined player or party, or the party who filed the original complaint.
6.3 All appeals must be presented to the Crossleyans Club Chairman, in writing, within 30 days of the Disciplinary Panels decision, outlining the reason for appeal, which must fall under the following acceptable grounds:
(i)The availability of new and pertinent information that was not available at the initial hearing;(ii) The question of whether the Disciplinary Panel has exceeded its authority or jurisdiction as defined by this policy or as conferred on them by the General Committee;(iii)The appropriateness of the sentence or conditions imposed of either severity or leniency.
6.4 The Crossleyans Club Chairman shall form a three member Appeals Committee, all to be senior members of the rugby club (eg. Life Vice-Presidents, Life Members, Past Presidents, etc)
6.5 Until the appeal is heard, any sanctions imposed by the Disciplinary Panel shall be held in abeyance. If the appeal is seen to be a cynical attempt to delay the imposition of the sentence/tariff, then the Appeals Committee will increase the original sentence/tariff.
6.6 In order to ensure a fresh hearing of the incident, any General Committee member who has prior involvement in the incident or disciplinary decision shall not be eligible to vote on the appeal. In the event the foregoing prevents a quorum of votes, the Crossleyans Club Chairman may co-opt any other members to attend and vote on the appeal.
6.7 The decision of the Appeals Committee shall be final.
