Substitution

Substitution or replacement?

Substitution and sub are the everyday words. The laws use replacement for every kind of change, including tactical ones (Law 3). A replacement is a nominated player who comes on in place of a team-mate. The change can be permanent, for injury or tactics, or temporary while a player is treated.

How many replacements are allowed

For international matches a union may nominate up to eight replacements. For other matches the match organiser decides how many, up to a maximum of eight (Law 3). With 15 starters, that makes a match-day squad of up to 23 (Law 3).

Some levels of the game use rolling replacements, where players can go off and come back on. The match organiser sets the rules, with no more than 12 interchanges (Law 3).

When a replacement can come on

Replacements are made only when the ball is dead and with the referee's permission (Law 3). A player who joins the match without permission to gain an advantage is guilty of misconduct, and the other team gets a penalty.

Can a replaced player come back on?

It depends on why they went off:

• injured and permanently replaced: no, they may not return (Law 3)
• temporarily replaced for a blood injury: yes, within 15 minutes of actual time (Law 3)
• temporarily replaced for a head injury assessment: yes, within 12 minutes (Law 3)
• replaced for tactical reasons: only to replace an injured front-row player, a player with a blood or head injury, or a player injured by foul play (Law 3)

In elite rugby, a tactically replaced player may also come on for a team-mate who has received a qualifying red card, once 20 minutes of playing time have passed (Law 3).

Yellow and red cards

Replacements cannot be used to make up the numbers after a card. A team with a player in the sin bin plays a player short for the 10 minutes (Laws 3 and 9). Under the standard law a player who is sent off may not be replaced, although elite rugby allows a replacement after 20 minutes for most red cards (Law 9).

Common questions