Player count on a restart

[DanHS]

There is some disagreement within our association and I apologize to all. The AR is clear that we should count players on a restart following penalty administration. Last year, most of us would have tried to correct a team having too few players or too many players without administering a penalty. We never would have penalized a team for having too few players.

This year, we have been instructed to start the 20 second timer following the penalty administration and then penalize a team if they have either too few or too many players. The AR idirects us to penalize the teams equally for having too many or too few players. I think I understand the situation describes on the AR.

If the officials fail to count properly on the restart but discover a problem after play has been restarted – do we treat the two problems (too many – too few) equally? And would you kill the play immediately?

[LaxRef]

There is some disagreement within our association and I apologize to all. The AR is clear that we should count players on a restart following penalty administration. Last year, most of us would have tried to correct a team having too few players or too many players without administering a penalty. We never would have penalized a team for having too few players.

This year, we have been instructed to start the 20 second timer following the penalty administration and then penalize a team if they have either too few or too many players. The AR idirects us to penalize the teams equally for having too many or too few players. I think I understand the situation describes on the AR.

If the officials fail to count properly on the restart but discover a problem after play has been restarted – do we treat the two problems (too many – too few) equally? And would you kill the play immediately?

I think that if I started play and quickly realized there was a problem, I'd stop play and administer the penalty, but if I didn't notice it until later I'd throw the flag and let play continue. Those just seem like the right things to do; I'll be glad to recant if someone has a better thought.

[gallbladder]

Always seemed to me that starting with too few was its own penalty. Certainly no advantage.

I'd be in favor of a rules change here to penalize only if restarting with too many unless, when realized by the "too few" team, the tardy player comes into the play and participates in an "advantageous" manner i.e., delayed substitution mechanics.

[eme]

The substitution rules couldn't be any clearer. A team has 20 seconds to get the proper number of people on the field. Why have/use a 20-second beeper if that were not the case?

In addition, the Rules Committee felt that a) having too many men on the field was a self-evident advantage. b) having too few meant that the other team would start play based on the opposing team's number of players and their positions on the field. To suddenly have that dynamic change with a late-arriving opponent was a disadvantage, too.

Finally, as a third reason for the AR, before the AR was put in it was unclear what to do in that situation. Penalize? Silent play-on? Let it go?
This AR now makes it crystal clear what to do.

[DanHS]

The AR is clear about the indentification of a problem before the whistle to restart play but it does not address how to handle the problem after the whistle.

LaxRef - in light of the AR would you flag it both ways (under/over) if play had restarted.

[LaxRef]

The AR is clear about the indentification of a problem before the whistle to restart play but it does not address how to handle the problem after the whistle.

LaxRef - in light of the AR would you flag it both ways (under/over) if play had restarted.

Yeah, it's definitely a penalty if they're over for illegal sub (too many men), and if they're under it's a delayed sub.