Judicial Training

Judicial Training

The purpose of the training is to harness your legal / rugby knowledge and help you apply it within the disciplinary regime with a view to driving consistent decision-making in line with the Laws, Regulations and refereeing interpretations in the modern game.

World Rugby Regulation 17 sets out the rules, regulations and procedures with respect to discipline across all World Rugby members. World Rugby Regulation 20 further expands on the Disciplinary and Judicial procedural rules which apply. These provisions are the same at all levels of the adult game. You can find Regulation 17 on the World Rugby website in English (as well as French and Spanish) here, and Regulation 20 here.

Judicial Officers are lawyers of at least seven years standing who are independent. They sit either alone or as chair of a three-person Disciplinary Committee featuring former-players, coaches and referees with recent experience of the Game. Their role is to rule on disciplinary cases in accordance with Regulation 17 brought to them as a result of:

  1. A red card issued by a referee (or any combination of two or more yellow cards or Citing Commissioner Warnings issued in the same match);
  2. A citing issued by a Citing Commissioner (or a team where there is no Citing Commissioner and team citing is in operation);
  3. A case where a player has accumulated any combination of three yellow cards or Citing Commissioner Warnings during a tournament (or five during a series of 7s tournaments)

Judicial personnel may also be requested to sit as Appeal Officers or as part of an Appeal Committee in appeals arising from disciplinary cases (in which they had no prior involvement).

The criteria for Judicial Officers/Chairs of Disciplinary Committees, Appeal Officers/Chairs of Appeal Committees and Disciplinary/Appeal Committee members are set out in World Rugby Regulation 20.

Chairs of World Rugby Disciplinary Committees / Judicial Officers shall:

  1. be senior legal practitioners of at least seven years standing or serving or retired judges independent of Unions/Associations; and
  2. have demonstrable, proven and recent (i.e. within the last 2 years) judicial experience at adult men’s/women’s international (e.g. Six Nations, Rugby Championship, Regional Competitions) and/or professional club level (e.g. Super Rugby, EPCR, Premiership, Top 14, URC, NPC, Currie Cup or equivalent); and
  3. have either: (i) attended and successfully completed in the past 24 months a World Rugby judicial training workshop; or (ii) be scheduled to attend a World Rugby judicial training workshop in the next 12 months (and attend and pass); or (iii) have successfully operated at Tier 1 v Tier 1 and/or in a World Rugby tournament, during the past 2 years; and
  4. have an in-depth recent knowledge of the Laws and skills of the Game and the relevant World Rugby Regulations.


Chairs of World Rugby Appeal Committees / Appeal Officers shall:

  1. be senior legal practitioners of at least ten years standing or serving or retired judges independent of Unions/Associations;
  2. have demonstrable, proven and recent experience (i.e. within the last 2 years) over a period not less than 3 years in first instance and/or appeal of rugby disciplinary proceedings (i.e. as a judicial officer or chair of disciplinary committees and/or appeal officer or chair of appeal committees) at adult men’s/women’s international level (e.g. Six Nations, Rugby Championship, Regional Competitions); and
  3. have an in-depth recent knowledge of the Laws and skills of the Game and the relevant World Rugby Regulations.

Committee Members shall: 

  1. have experience in the modern/professional game (playing, coaching or refereeing) ordinarily within the last 10 years.
  2. be independent of Unions and not involved or intending to become involved in the international/professional game (for example, in an elite coaching/assistant coaching or referee manager/assessor capacity) through until at least Rugby World Cup 2023 to ensure their independence from players who may appear in cases before them throughout the relevant period.
  3. have an in-depth recent knowledge of the Laws and skills of the Game.

To ensure there is no actual or perceived conflict of interest, all judicial personnel (whether lawyers or former-players, coaches and referees sitting as part of Disciplinary or Appeal Committees) have to comply with the independence criteria set out in the Regulations. This includes that they are independent of the Unions involved and that they do not hold any legislative role in any Union or Association (e.g., sitting on Union boards or committees) (Regulation 20.1.3).

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