In January the club inadvertently allowed a 16 year old to train and play in a second team fixture on the wing. This is in contravention to RFU regulations Rule 12 where players under the age of 18 play with adults without permission. No injury occurred.

As soon as the club realised this error, we made our safeguarding officer aware of the incident who informed the necessary authorities. An incident report was sent to the RFU.

A disciplinary hearing was held in March and the club pleaded guilty to the charge. The breach fell into the mid level sanction for an offence of this nature.

The club received three sanctions:

• 1. The first XV to be deducted 8 points. 4 points deducted immediate and 4 points suspended until the end of the season pending no similar offence committed.
• 2. Charlie Maunder and Johnny Rah to be banned from coaching match day activities for two months but suspended until the end of the season pending no similar offence committed.
• 3. The second XV barred from entering the Aire Wharfe Cup for 2018/19 season.

After discussion the committee decided to accept sanction 1 and 2, and decided to appeal sanction 3 on the basis of the sanction being unduly excessive so as to be unreasonable.

The appeal was dismissed by the RFU so all three sanctions will be applied to the club. The full judgement is on the RFU website.

The club apologises for this unintentional breach, and has confirmed to the RFU it has put in place new procedures to prevent a similar incident happening again. The club has requested a number of active volunteers to attend the RFU safeguarding course. This has been done.

The RFU praised the club for notifying this beach, for the detailed incident report and for putting in place future measures to protect under age players.