Yellow Cards

Two Yellow Cards in a Match

• 1. A Player that receives two yellow cards in a match (whether for Foul Play or technical offences) and is ordered off after the second yellow card (i.e. awarded a red card), will have their case heard by a Disciplinary Panel.
• 2. Where a Player has been ordered off as a result of receiving two yellow cards and one or both of those yellow cards was awarded for Foul Play, then the Player may challenge one or both of the Foul Play yellow cards. There is no right of appeal against the award of a yellow card for a technical offence. If the Disciplinary Panel allows an appeal against one or both of the Foul Play yellow cards the red card shall be expunged from the Player’s record. Any yellow card that was not challenged and set aside by the Disciplinary Panel shall remain on the player’s record.
• 3. If a Player has received two Citing Commissioner Warnings (CCWs) or a combination of CCW and a yellow card during a match they shall be treated for disciplinary purposes as if they had been ordered-off during the match.
• 4. The Disciplinary Panel is required to apply a sanction for the offence of persistent offending, not for the substantive offences relating to each yellow card. In this case the appropriate entry point for persistent offending within a single match is a suspension of one week. Sanctioning in these circumstances should be determined by reference to the methodology in RFU Regulation 19 and in particular to the application of mitigating and aggravating features.

Totting-up Three Foul Play Yellow Cards in a Season (Premiership, Championship, National League Rugby 1 and 2 and PWR.

• 5. A Player who receives three yellow cards for Foul Play during a season in the Premiership, Championship, National League Rugby 1 and 2 and PWR will have their case heard by an RFU Disciplinary Panel.
• 6. A Citing Commissioner Warning is to be treated as an off-field yellow card for Foul Play for the purposes of totting-up. A Citing Commissioner Warning shall be issued by an RFU Citing Commissioner (in the Premiership or Championship or in PWR) for an act of Foul Play that, in the Citing Commissioner’s opinion, narrowly fails to meet the red card threshold and is required to be brought to the Player’s attention.
• 7. No disciplinary action will be taken in relation to yellow cards awarded for technical offences. All yellow cards (technical and Foul Play) shall be reported to the RFU, but only those awarded for Foul Play will be recorded, attract an administrative fee as set out in Appendix 3 and be included for totting up purposes.
• 8. On receipt of the third Foul Play yellow card, the Player shall not be permitted to play in any match and shall be provisionally suspended from all on-field activities on match days anywhere in the world pending the outcome of the case.
• 9. An appeal against a Foul Play yellow card (or a Citing Commissioner Warning) may only be made where the appellant alleges that there was mistaken identity or that no act of Foul Play took place. The appeal must be lodged within 7 days of the date of the match with the RFU Head of Discipline and the appeal will be dealt with at the hearing that is subsequently arranged to deal with the totting up. Any appeal that is lodged after the 7 day period will not be valid and shall not be considered by the Disciplinary Panel.
• 10. On receipt of the appeal notice, the RFU Head of Discipline will contact the Match Official(s) involved in the award of the yellow card and request an appeal report (“the appeal report”) noting that the Player has sought to appeal the decision. A copy of any match footage will also be shared with the Match Official(s) at the time the additional information is sought by the RFU. Match Officials will be able to give their report on the yellow card in light of their own match review. This process will ensure that the Match Official(s) provides as much detail as possible when matters are fresh in their minds knowing that the matter may be considered in the future.
• 11. The appeal report will be shared with the Club on receipt. The appeal report will remain on the file unless and until such time as an appeal hearing is required, save where the Match Official(s) agrees that the yellow card was wrongly awarded, and that is recorded in the appeal report. In such circumstances, and unless the RFU makes representations to the contrary, the appeal and the appeal report will be submitted to a Disciplinary Panel to deal with the appeal on the papers, and there need be no further delay before the record is amended.
• 12. If the player should receive a further yellow card for foul play at a time when there is an outstanding appeal, the RFU will include the appeal report from the Match Officials in the hearing bundle, together with any additional submissions the player wishes to make on the yellow card.
• 13. The Disciplinary Panel is required to apply a sanction for the offence of persistent offending, not for the substantive offences relating to each yellow card. The appropriate entry point for sanction is a suspension of one - three weeks. Sanctioning in these circumstances should be determined by reference to the methodology in RFU Regulation 19 and in particular to the application of mitigating and aggravating features.
• 14. The Disciplinary Panel may decide to apply no sanction in the following circumstances:
  • a. where one or more of the yellow cards was applied as a result of mistaken identity; or
  • b. that no act of Foul Play took place.