Plymouth Dolphins RFC Disciplinary Procedure

The purpose of the Disciplinary Procedure Manual (Manual) is to ensure Plymouth Dolphins RFC is compliant with the rules and regulations set out by the Rugby Football Union and allow each disciplinary matter to be dealt with fairly and transparently.

The Rugby Football Union’s Core Values of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship define our sport and make it special for players, coaches, match officials, administrators, volunteers, and fans. Fair, yet robust, disciplinary procedures are critical in ensuring that rugby remains a game of controlled physical endeavour, with the health, welfare and enjoyment of all involved protected.

A defined and comprehensive disciplinary system protects rugby’s image, integrity and values and, by observing the Laws of the Game, its Rules and Regulations, and reporting breaches, we are supporting rugby’s values so that action can be taken, and further violations deterred. We all have a part to play in the system that protects rugby’s good name.

The Disciplinary Sub-Committee and Hearing Panel shall consist of the Chairperson, Club Secretary, Captain, and/or 2 other senior members.

Where a Disciplinary Sub-Committee member is the subject of a complaint or is a witness to an alleged infringement who provides evidence in the form of oral testimony as part of the investigation process, then that member shall not participate in the Disciplinary Sub-Committee investigation and/or Hearing Panel for that matter;

Where a ‘Conflict of Interest’ occurs, that member does not need to be replaced, so long as there are three members of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee sitting on the Hearing Panel.

Where the Conflict of Interest extends to the Chairperson, the Club Secretary will assume their responsibilities. The Club Captain will then assume the responsibilities of the Club Secretary. If the Club Secretary is unable to fulfil their delegated duties in the absence of the Chairperson, then the Club Captain will fulfil those delegated responsibilities. Subsequent delegations of responsibility will be at the discretion of the Chairperson. The Disciplinary Sub-Committee is required to investigate: Infringements of the Laws of Rugby; Infringements of the RFU and World Rugby Rules and Regulations; Infringements of the club Code of Conduct; Any action by a member which may bring the Club into disrepute; Any matters which includes discrimination of another member due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, racial or cultural background, national heritage, religion or age. The Disciplinary Sub-Committee have no authority to investigate matters in breach of criminal law.

Matters involving criminal conduct shall be referred to the relevant authorities, namely the police service in which the conduct occurred. The Club Secretary shall keep a record of any match disciplinary matters on behalf of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee. A record of these matters is available for inspection by the RFU. The Disciplinary Sub-Committee shall keep a record of any Code of Conduct disciplinary matters. These records are not for personal inspection except by the person under investigation in the matter of an Appeal.

Upon the Club being notified of a disciplinary matter from a match then the player shall be informed within 24 hours that the Club has received notice.

Within seven days of the matter being reported to the Club then a charge sheet shall be prepared which must include:

• Name of the player or coach

• Date of the match

• Teams playing the match

• Location of the match

• Citation to the Law allegedly infringed

• Details of the infringement

• An indication of a plea for the player to return.

A Hearing shall be held within 14 days of the game to establish any sanction for the player. The Hearing Panel shall consist of a minimum of three members of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee, preferably two Executive Officers and one Elected Member of the Sub-Committee.

All sanctions for match discipline shall be dealt with according to RFU Regulation 19.

A Complaint is defined as:

• Infringements of the Club Code of Conduct

• Any action by a member which may bring the Club into disrepute

• Any matters which include discrimination of another member due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, racial or cultural background, national heritage, religion or age.

A complaint can be made to any Executive Officer or Disciplinarily Subcommittee Member: Any Club member may also be referred to the Disciplinarily Subcommittee upon complaint from a Club member, by an EGM or AGM, by a Club Captain or upon the direction of an official rugby body to which the Club has directly or indirectly affiliated.

The complaint must be sent by the Chairperson, or in their absence the Club Secretary, to all Disciplinary Sub-Committee members within 48 hours of it being received.

The Chairperson, or in his absence the Club Secretary, will provide an initial assessment on the merits of the complaint to the Disciplinary Sub-Committee; The following initial grading shall be given to the complaint:

Classification Severity of A

A) A serious infringement of the Code of Conduct or an act which intends to undermine the purpose and spirit of the Club.

B) An infringement of the Code of Conduct which must be sanctioned, if found, to maintain the standards of the Club.

C) An infringement. of the Code of Conduct although unlikely to have brought the Club into disrepute.

If the infringement is preliminarily assessed as Severity A, then the Disciplinary Sub-Committee must meet within 72 hours of the report of the complaint and confirm that the member is suspended from any training activities, games and social events until the outcome of the complaint process.

The decision to suspend a member shall be carried by a majority vote of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee. The member must be informed by the Chairperson, or in their absence the Club Secretary, that they have been suspended pending an investigation and potential hearing.

There is no right of appeal to suspension as it is done to safeguard the morality of the Game, the reputation and purpose and the spirit of the Club and its members. Any matter which goes against the purpose and spirit of the Club shall normally be dealt with as a Severity A infringement, including any action which is motivated, instigated or attempts to undermine a person based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, race, religion, cultural background, national heritage, country of origin or age.

Within seven days of the complaint being made the person under investigation shall be issued with a ‘Subject to Investigation’ form: The exception to this is where evidence to the contrary exists and the matter can be dealt with immediately as either unfounded or malicious;

Any matter found to be entered maliciously at any point of the investigation will be treated as a separate disciplinary matter to maintain the integrity of the Code of Conduct.

The ‘Subject to Investigation’ form can be served either electronically or personally: The Form is deemed served electronically one day after it was sent. The ‘Subject of Investigation’ form will outline:

• The alleged infringement

• The person(s) under investigation

• The initial grading being given to the matter;

• A ‘Return’ form’ indicating whether the person under investigation intends to plead guilty, not guilty or partially guilty to the matter. The completed ‘Return’ form must be received seven days from the date of service of the ‘Subject to Investigation’ form. Failure to submit a completed ‘Return’ form by the prescribed deadline will be deemed an admission of guilt. Where a guilty plea is entered then a date will be fixed for a Disciplinary Hearing and all witnesses shall be informed. Where partial guilt is entered, the statements of each witness will be served upon the person under investigation within seven days of the Return form being received. Where a not-guilty plea is entered, the statements of each witness will be served upon the person under investigation within seven days of the Return form being received.

The person under investigation has 14 days, from the date of the witness statements being served, to submit a written reply to the Secretary for the attention of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee outlining their reply, defence or mitigation. The Disciplinary Sub-Committee will consider a reasonable request for an adjournment of the hearing where that request has been submitted in writing to the Chairperson and Club Secretary no later than 48 hours before the start of the hearing.

The complaint process must be dealt with expeditiously and should be concluded within eight weeks: The exception to this is where matters involve criminal matters,

in which case the criminal matter will take precedence and the club investigation will start at the conclusion of the criminal matter: A criminal matter shall deem to be concluded when the police service investigating the complaint take no further action (NFA), the person being investigated is issued an official reprimand. or the person being investigated is either found guilty or acquitted in a criminal court. Failure to meet shall not alter the final decision made and is not a ground for appeal.

Hearing Panel

The decision of the Hearing Panel must be communicated to both the person under investigation and the complainant within 24 hours of the decision. The quorum for a Hearing Panel is three members of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee, including the Chairperson. The person under investigation has the right to be accompanied to the Hearing by a member of the Club. The accompanying member will not be permitted to testify, cause disturbance or answer questions on behalf of the person under investigation. If the person under investigation fails to attend the Hearing, the Hearing will be adjourned and rescheduled. If the person under investigation fails to attend the rescheduled Hearing, the Hearing will proceed in their absence. The Hearing may be audibly recorded if directed by the Chairperson and is the preferred method of accurately recording the Hearing: The Hearing remains the property of the club and will only be made available in transcript form should an appeal be granted and opposed (that is an Appeal Hearing is ordered). Minutes must be taken of the Hearing, these need not be verbatim: Minutes of the Hearing must be provided in written form to all parties present no later than 10 working days following the Hearing. The Hearing shall be heard on the standard of the balance of probabilities.

The balance of probability standard means that the Hearing Panel is satisfied an event occurred if the Hearing Panel considers that, on the evidence, the occurrence of the event was more likely than not. Hearsay evidence is admissible: Hearsay evidence is defined as “a statement made otherwise than by a person giving oral testimony” (in accordance with Rule 33 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998); The weight given to hearsay evidence is a matter for the Panel to decide;

Any party may rely on hearsay evidence at a Disciplinary Hearing; Where hearsay evidence is relied upon for a matter in dispute then the Hearing must decide what weight is to be given to this so that proceedings be fair and just.

A witness need not attend the Hearing. It is then up to the Hearing Panel as to the weight they apply to that evidence.

A witness whose evidence is disputed by either party should be encouraged to attend the Hearing; A witness who is a member of the Club will be expected to comply with the Disciplinary Procedure when they are a witness to matters under the Code of Conduct and there is an expectation to attend a Hearing. It is up to the Hearing Panel how much weight is given to each piece of evidence, taking into account the veracity, the corroboration and any other relevant matters. There are no rules regarding continuity of exhibits, if exhibits exist in the case.

A copy of all paperwork must be provided to the person under investigation as soon as possible but no later than five working days prior to the date of the Hearing so that they can prepare any defence, mitigation or raise witnesses for themselves:

If a person wishes to raise a witness for themselves, either of character or evidence then the details of the witness account must be provided to the Chairperson and Club Secretary no later than 48 hours before the start of the Hearing. The evidence shall be heard by the Hearing Panel before they shall retire to discuss the evidence and propose firstly whether the complaint has been found or unfounded; secondly their suggested outcome:

The Hearing Panel will decide in which order evidence is to be heard, however, in cases of Code of Conduct matters it will usually follow:

• Complainant/victim of infringement;

• Witnesses for the complainant;

• Other witnesses of the infringement/evidence;

• Witnesses for the person under investigation;

• The person under investigation;

• Any representative of the person under investigation for mitigation; or representations in person by the person under investigation.

Where not all members of the Hearing Panel can agree unanimously on whether the complaint is upheld or not proven, the majority shall rule, with the dissenting views still able to advise on the suggested outcome. Where the Hearing Panel consists of an even number of Disciplinary Sub-Committee members, the Chairperson shall hold the casting vote in the event the Hearing Panel is split. The Hearing minutes will record which Panel members upheld the complaint and who found the complaint not proven.

Sanctions for Upheld Disciplinary Complaints

The possible sanctions following a complaint being upheld are as follows:

1. Immediate termination submitted in writing by the club chair

2. Membership was reduced to nonplayer for two months and a written warning by the Chairperson and Club.

3. Member is issued a Notice of Improvement by the Club Captain.

4. Member is to appear in front of the Chairperson for a verbal warning.

5. Member is issued a verbal warning by the Club Captain.

An Extraordinary General Meeting or Annual General Meeting can overturn the decisions of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee.

An application for an appeal to be heard at the AGM must be sent to the Club Secretary in writing one week before the date of the AGM. Where the AGM is due to be held within seven days following the decision of the Hearing Panel, the appeal application must follow.

An application for an appeal to be heard at an EGM must be sent to the Club Secretary in writing no later than 14 days following the decision of the Hearing Panel and signed by seven full members of the Club. The Club Secretary must convene the EGM within 28 days of receipt of the signed application.

An appeal must be based on:

1) A serious error of judgement by the Disciplinary Sub-Committee due to the weight of the evidence not supporting the decision of the Hearing.

2) The imposed sanction was unduly lenient or too harsh.

The appeal will consist of three parts:

1) An oral and/or written statement from the Chairperson on behalf of the Disciplinary Sub-Committee in which he will outline the investigation, the Hearing minutes and the decision of the Hearing Panel and imposed sanctions;

2) An oral and/or written statement from the Appellant outlining their Appeal

3) An oral reply to the statement of the Appellant.

Following the appeal, full members of the Club will vote to either deny or uphold the appeal. The vote will be carried by the majority within the room. Where an appeal to an imposed sanction is upheld, the Chairperson will motion a second vote on the alternative sanctions available.

Updated Jan 2021 – to be reviewed Jan 2022