Re: 14 players! : Thu May 02, 2013 8:22 am
Its not necessarily the 4th officials fault, every game an interchange official turns up as well, nothing to do with rfl, he is just a local ref who goes that week, normally he does the subs of the home team, the 4th official normally does the away team, and the 4th official writes down who comes on and off, but if he cant see who goes on or off the interchange official is supposed to go up to him and say 10 off 8 on etc, it is then logged for future reference.He has a folder and the dugout has the cards with numbers on, the player is given the numbered card to give to the io/4th official when he goes onto field, but he is not allowed to do the sub until the player coming off is either within 10m and advancing to touchline or gone off from a try etc behind the sticks or taken off over the far touchline by the doc/physio.
The i/o is meant to stand there quietly watching and getting ready for subs and not allowed to clap etc when a try is scored, but sometimes you cant help it..i know of one who screamed abuse at ganson when he did it at bradford and was shouted at by the m c.
