1. Discipline
Warlingham Rugby Football Club (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 the Surrey
Rugby Football Union.
2.2 The General Committee delegates the prime responsibility for discipline
matters to the Disciplinary Committee.
2.3 The Disciplinary Committee's jurisdiction covers all incidents, both on-field and off-field.
2.4 The Chairman and members of the Disciplinary Committee will be elected
by the General Committee and will be responsible for maintaining and
effectively implementing this Disciplinary Policy. The Disciplinary Committee shall consist of at least two members.
2.5 The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee 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) and team manager (mini and junior
sides) shall be responsible for advising the Chairman of the Disciplinary
Committee 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 Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee within 12 hours of the incident occurring. The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee shall ensure a hearing is held with the player and his team captain, manager or parent, as applicable, as soon as possible after the incident.
3.5 The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee shall inform the Discipline
Secretary of Surrey Rugby in accordance with its procedure.
3.6 The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, or his nominated
representative, and the player(s) shall attend the formal hearing as required
by Surrey Rugby.
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 Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee by any spectator, coach, referee, or other player, in writing within 7 (seven) days of the incident. The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee will then investigate any claims and if required shall ensure a hearing is held with the player and his team captain, manager or parent, as applicable, 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 Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee in writing as soon as possible after the incident, but no later than fourteen (14) days. On receipt of the written complaint, if the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee deems the situation warrants, he shall convene a hearing to deal with the incident.
4.4 The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee 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 Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee will select a Disciplinary
Panel for each hearing.
5.2 The Disciplinary Panel shall have as its members, a Chairman and two
members of the General Committee. The Club President is barred from sitting
on the panel - see section 6, Appeals.
5.3 An individual appearing at a hearing or a member of the individual's family may not be selected as a member of the Disciplinary Panel at the same hearing.
5.4 All hearings will be minuted.
6. Appeals
6.1 The Club President 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 Club President, in writing, within 30 days of the Disciplinary Panel's 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 President shall form a three member Appeals Committee, all to be
senior members of the rugby club (eg. Life Vice-Presidents, Past Presidents,
Vice 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 President may eo-opt any other members to attend and vote on the appeal.
6.7 The decision of the Appeals Committee shall be final.

September 2015