TProper dress required. Please put your belongings away carefully. This could be a brief summary of the dress code and internal regulations for teams playing in the Top 14 and Pro D2. And it is not limited to a simple vade-mecum. This Wednesday and the following one, the LNR disciplinary committee launched a whopping 16 summonses that will lead to the hearing of 14 clubs from the first and second divisions that did not comply. Massive.
The following are concerned: Section Paloise and Montauban following the “presence of warm-up equipment in the end zone”; Nevers following the “presence of obstacles (water bottles) in the end zone”; Biarritz following the “presence of substitute players outside the area marked out for warm-ups”; Clermont, Lyon, Perpignan, Stade Rochelais, Toulon, Aurillac, Nice and Nevers for wearing non-compliant support stockings and/or oversocks; Perpignan, UBB and Dax for wearing non-compliant helmets; Vannes “for positioning of reservists and non-compliant outside the group”. Offences that leave one doubtful.
Respect for the rules
These summons have caused a stir. However, the clubs had been warned, they insist at the National Rugby League. Better still, after the LNR services sent letters or warnings for a year – it was the presidents who validated the idea of moving to the sanctions stage at the beginning of September in the board of directors.
League officials also put forward a detailed argument for each call-up. Even those that seem the most bizarre… How could water bottles in the goal line constitute any inconvenience? “What happens if a ball is deflected after bouncing on it? What decision should a referee make if a try is flattened on it?” asks the competent services of the LNR. Let’s admit it.
But why punish the wearing of support stockings or oversocks then? Or even that of a so-called non-compliant helmet? It would be tempting to see behind this excess of zeal the desire to standardize Top 14 and Pro D2 products for Canal+ cameras. But the desire to please the broadcaster is not the only one in this matter.
It is the simple application of the regulation which stipulates that helmets must all be the same colour and that socks, which can slip during the match if support stockings are worn, must comply with the equipment determined at the start of the season.
Concrete example: if the UBB is called up for this title, it is because Jonny Gray came into play wearing a black helmet during the reception of the Stade Français while his teammates had a white one.
All this may seem quite trivial to you (and rightly so). However, the consequences could be very real. For these offences, the entry scale provides for fines of 5,000 euros. They can even jump to 30,000 euros for repeat offenders. That’s a lot for a breach of the “dress code”…
