This comes from the head of judiciary, Richard Whittam KC, and has been circulated to all clubs at every level and all Referee Societies nationwide.

Almost 50% of match officials surveyed by the RFU reported experiencing abuse, which has led to stricter punishments for offenders. The RFU has implemented aggravated sanctions that will extend suspensions by two, three, or four weeks, depending on the severity of the initial charge.

Match official abuse is of considerable concern to the RFU. Rugby discipline can only maintain and promote fair play and protect the health and welfare of players with the support of match officials whose recruitment and retention is affected by the number of abuse instances.

In addition to the above, video evidence from games has shown that the majority of ‘pitch side’ incidents occur when no respect barriers are in place. In view of this, whilst NLD is not currently considering making respect barriers a mandatory requirement, the Disciplinary Panel will take into account where the lack of a respect barrier has been a contributory factor with any incident of MOA / bad pitch side behaviour.

As a club, we do not want to implement physical respect barriers but use white lines we will mark back from the touchlines

Please be aware we are responsible for the behaviour of ALL attendees from our club at any fixture

For full details of the RFU announcement, please click here