Injury replacement at RWC
Once the country has announced its squad for the World Cup and once it is at the World Cup., it is allowed replacements for two reasons.
Rules for replacement of players during the tournament or after the team announcement on 14 August are the same. Replacements are made only for medical or compassionate reasons.
To effect a change the team seeking a replacement completes a form and sends it to Rugby World Cup along with a medical certificate where appropriate. Once signed off, a replacement is not allowed to play for 48 hours and the replacement is permanent.
There are also regulations governing the expulsion of a team.
No match points will be awarded to a team which has been expelled from the tournament, refuses to play a match or abandons a match in progress, without direction from match officials or the RWC match Commissioner, subject to the
provisions of the Terms of Participation.
When no match points are awarded to a team for a given match, its opponent in that match shall be awarded a win and therefore four match points.
Where a team is expelled from the tournament, it shall forfeit all match points previously awarded, and its opponents in each match previously played shall be awarded four match points (which shall replace any match points previously awarded from the particular match). All points scored for and against in these matches shall be discounted in the official pool rankings and team records used for tournament purposes.
