Front Row sin bin

[All The Time Ref]

Here's an interesting situation that happened to a mate recently.

23 mins Blue Hooker sin binned.

26 mins at a line out Blue send on replacement hooker and take off flanker.

28 mins Scrum to Red. Blue captain announces that Blues have not got a STE front row due to their hooker being off the park.

Ref says you just replaced your flanker with a hooker at the line out. Captain says that was for the line out. He can't hook but can throw in.

Ref says ok uncontested but the replacement is a permenant one as the sin bin replacement is for scrum issues only.

33 mis Sin binned hooker returns. replacement hooker goes to flanker and the original flanker stayed off the park.

I thought it a good call by the ref but am not 100% sure that it is technically right.

[Bryan]

It is correct. A FR replacement can only be made at the next scrummage. If it means that a team has no trained hooker at a lineout, that is the price they pay. A "Suitably Trained" FR player applies only to scrums.

That being said, the referee should have spotted this as the substitution was being made, as most teams aren't aware of this. Better management could have avoided the substitution and subsequent permanent replacement.

[Pablo]

The ref got this one right. A temporary substitution for a binned front-rower can only happen when the involvement of the front-rower is absolutely essential - ie. at a scrum. See Law 3.13(b) for the full story.

[All The Time Ref]

Thanks Guys. A varient of this also happened in the Welsh premiership where one side was allowed to change for a line out and scored through a catch and drive. At another game involving one of the sides involved in that game it was not allowed. Clearly not fully understood by refs and coaches.

[didds]

maybe the coach did understand but thougyht he'd try and see if the ref did...

;-)

didds