1. There is deliberately no guidance within the World Rugby sanctions table(s) to assist a Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee to determine the appropriate sanction in relation to accumulated Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings. This is an area where judicial discretion is required given the multiple permutations that could emerge. A Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee may be required to consider whether to apply sanctions against Players for accumulation of Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings in two circumstances:

(a) where a Player has received three Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings (or a combination thereof) in a particular tournament or series and/or five Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings in a season of the World Rugby Sevens Series and the Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee is required to consider whether any further penalty should be imposed by reason of the Player’s persistent Foul Play (Regulations 17.9.5 and 17.37.2(a)); or

(b) where a Player has received two Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings in one Match which in the case of a Temporary Suspension led to him being Ordered Off on receipt of the second temporary suspension (Regulation 17.9.4).

2. It is assumed for the purposes of this Appendix that none of the relevant Temporary Suspensions resulted in a subsequent citing which was upheld by a Judicial Officer. In such cases the Temporary Suspension event which has been cited falls away and is replaced by the decision arising from the citing.

A. Player receives three Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings in a Tournament/Series or five in a Sevens Series

1. The Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee is required to apply a sanction for the offence of persistent offending, not for the substantive offences relating to each Temporary Suspension and/or Citing Commissioner Warning. Ordinarily, the appropriate entry point sanction in such circumstances is a suspension of one to three weeks depending upon the seriousness of the offending. Sanctioning in these circumstances should be determined by reference to the methodology in Regulations 17.17 to 17.21 and in particular to the application of mitigating and aggravating features.

2. The Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee may, however, decide to apply no sanction in the following circumstances:

(a) where one or more of the Temporary Suspensions and/or Citing Commissioner Warnings was applied as a result of mistaken identity; or

(b) exceptional circumstances exist which would warrant no sanction being imposed. This situation could arise when:

(i) a Player was temporarily suspended for an act of Foul Play but on review it was clear that there was no Foul Play or only a minor act of Foul Play had been committed which would not have warranted a Temporary Suspension or Citing Commissioner Warning;

(ii) some of the Temporary Suspensions were awarded for technical offences (that is, not Foul Play) following a team warning by the referee or for what are characterised as so called technical offences not involving a breach of Laws 9.11 to 9.28 inclusive.

B. Player receives two Temporary Suspensions/Citing Commissioner Warnings in one Match

1. The Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee is required to apply a sanction for the offence of persistent offending, not for the substantive offences relating to each Temporary Suspension and/or Citing Commissioner Warning. Ordinarily, the appropriate entry point for persistent offending within a single Match is a suspension of one to two weeks. Sanctioning in these circumstances should be determined by reference to the methodology in Regulations 17.17 to 17.21 and in particular to the application of mitigating and aggravating features.

2. The Judicial Officer or Judicial Committee may decide that sending off was sufficient (or otherwise that no further sanction is appropriate) in the following circumstances:

(a) where either of the Temporary Suspensions or Citing Commissioner Warnings was applied as a result of mistaken identity; or

(b) that exceptional circumstances exist which would warrant no further sanctions being imposed. This situation could arise when a Player was temporarily suspended for an act of Foul Play but on review it was clear that there was no Foul Play or only a minor act of Foul Play had been committed which would not have warranted a Temporary Suspension and/or Citing Commissioner Warning;

(c) any of the Temporary Suspensions were awarded for so-called technical offences (including following a team warning) not involving a breach of Laws 9.11 to 9.28 inclusive.