Playing against 16 men
No, not the referee. For the second time this season in the UK, there has been a case of 16 men playing for the same team for a brief while during a match.
In 2003 England underwent an inquiry at the World Cup for having 16 men on the field. It can easily happen in these days of substitutions. It happened this season in England when Plymouth Albion for about a minute had 16 men on the field when they beat Nottingham 31-25. Now in a Heineken Cup match over the weekend Leicester Tigers, beaten 17-12, have complained to the European Rugby Cup that for a while the Ospreys had 16 players on the field.
England's World Cup match was against Samoa. Dan Luger went on as a replacement to give England 16 men for a short while. Luger took no part in the game. England were fined £10 000 and Dave Reddin, their man who organised replacements/substitutions, was suspended for two matches.
Plymouth Albion's Graham Dawe came on as a replacement for prop Ryan Hopkins after 71 minutes. The RFU heard the case and took no action against Plymouth Albion, much to Nottingham's chagrin for they claimed that one of their players had been seriously injured when they were playing against 16 men.
The Ospreys incident also happened in the last 10 minutes. Fullback Lee Byrne had hobbled off with a bleeding toe and was replaced by Welsh international Sonny Parker. After being treated and in good time, Byrne came back onto the field and took part in play, helping to shore up the Ospreys defence as the Tigers attacked with the score 17-12 to the Ospreys.
When referee Alan Lewis's attention was drawn to this he went over to a woman in Ospreys colours, holding a clipboard and apparently controlling the Ospreys replacements/substitutions. Lewis had angry words with her and said that she had not gone through the match officials on the sideline whose job it is to control the coming and going of players during a match.
Play then went on.
The Leicester Tigers have complained about the 16 men, including the part Byrne played on defence, and that the referee had not penalised the Ospreys at a stage when a penalty could have made a significant difference.
3.1 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PLAYERS ON THE PLAYING AREA
Maximum: each team must have no more than fifteen players on the playing area during play.
3.2 TEAM WITH MORE THAN THE PERMITTED NUMBER OF PLAYERS
Objection: at any time before or during a match a team may make an objection to the referee about the number of players in their opponents’ team. As soon as the referee knows that a team has too many players, the referee must order the captain of that team to reduce the number appropriately. The score at the time of the objection remains unaltered.
Sanction: Penalty at the place where the game would restart.
According to the Laws of the Game, the score will stand. According to the Laws Lewis should have penalised the Ospreys. The inquiry will not see about taking steps against the Ospreys, though they have the Plymouth precedent.