Dallaglio backs 'rolling' substitutions trial

Lawrence Dallaglio believes rolling substitutions could be trialled in the Guinness Premiership as early as next season in a joint attempt to eradicate cheating from rugby and improve player welfare.

The potentially divisive proposal is one of 16 recommendations published by an Rugby Football Union task-force yesterday following a month-long review into the state of the game following the Bloodgate scandal at Harlequins.

The 13-man panel, which included Dallaglio, the former England captain, and Twickenham's elite rugby director Rob Andrew, found no evidence that cheating is systemic in rugby.

But there were enough incidences of "inappropriate behaviour" to suggest that action needs to be taken to close loopholes in the regulations, such as that which allowed the Bloodgate situation to occur.

The panel received evidence from 129 professional players, 10% of whom had either seen or participated in the faking of a blood injury at club level at least once.

That figure rises to 41% for players who had either witnessed club-mates feign injuries to force uncontested scrums or done it themselves.

Rolling substitutions would help eradicate both those issues and from a player welfare perspective they would also assist medics in diagnosing potential concussion.

Harlequins revealed at the ERC disciplinary hearing that one of their incidences of faking a blood injury had been to allow medics more time to diagnose the severity of a head injury.

The RFU's taskforce accepts rolling substitutions would affect the fabric of the game - but they concluded the game must look closely at the option.

Dallaglio said: "There is a recommendation that once this has been discussed by the relevant governing bodies that we introduce a trial next year at the top level, which would mean the Guinness Premiership.

"The safety of the players is paramout. We are involved in a high impact, high collision, fast game.

"As laws currently stand, a medical officer only has 90 seconds to assess a player who takes a bang on the head. If he is not bleeding he has to leave the field permanently and that is not in the best interests of the game at large.

"We are tempting teams to go beyond the laws by certain loopholes.

"The issue of rolling substitutions needs to be discussed and it needs input from people who would know how fundamentally it would change the game.

"But you have to say that from a safety aspect the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks."

Rugby league already operates a system of rolling substitutions, where each side may make 12 interchanges from a four-man bench.

The RFU set up the panel in the wake of Bloodgate and the drugs affair at Bath, two episodes which dragged the image and reputation of the sport through the mud.

The taskforce has no authority and their recommendations are discussion points at present for further consideration either by the RFU's management board or the International Rugby Board.

The task-force want to speed up disciplinary processes to avoid a repeat of the five-month Bloodgate saga and they have backed the IRB's move to standardise sanctions across the global game.

The IRB have been urged to establish guidelines on how much blood is required before a player has to be temporarily replaced to undergo treatment.

The taskforce created a proposal designed to protect the role of medical professionals within the sport by detailing that their own professional code of conduct supercedes any contract of employment.

On a domestic level, the RFU will create a specific regulation covering cheating, gamesmanship and foul play with "severe sanctions" associated.

"We want to remove the temptation for cheating," said RFU chief executive Francis Baron.