It happens. Even in professional rugby it happens. Plymouth Albion, a club playing in The Championship, the second tier of professional rugby in England, has to face a disciplinary hearing on a charge of having 16 players on the field.

This, apparently, happened when Plymouth Albion played Nottingham on 31 October 2009, a match which Plymouth Albion won 31-25. Nottingham complained that, for a period of about a minute, Plymouth Albion had 16 players on the field. This sort of disciplinary hearing is so rare it could be unique.

The club has been charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Game and has been summoned to appear before an RFU Disciplinary Panel on Monday, 4 January 2010 at the Bristol Filton Holiday Inn (19.00) to answer a charge that they had 16 players on the field of play for a period of time - a breach of Law 3.1 of the International Rugby Board Laws of the Game.

The panel will comprise Christopher Quinlan (chair), Mike Curling and John Doubleday.

Law 3.1 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PLAYERS ON THE PLAYING AREA
Maximum: each team must have no more than fifteen players on the playing area.

Law 3.2 TEAM WITH MORE THAN THE PERMITTED NUMBER OF PLAYERS
Objection: at any time before or during a match a team may make an objection to the referee about the number of players in their opponents’ team. As soon as the referee knows that a team has too many players, the referee must order the captain of that team to reduce the number appropriately. The score at the time of the objection remains unaltered.
Penalty: Penalty at the place where the game would restart.

If this happens on the field, the referee counts the team accused of being overloaded. They reduce to 15 and are penalised. The score will, according to the law, remain the same.

Such an occurrence is usually an accident that happens when substitutions take place and has happened even in a Test match on an occasion.

The match in question was played at Plymouth Albion with top match officials - JP Doyle as the referee with Philip Davies and Eric Woodmason as his assistants.