Ashford Rugby Club say they are embarrassed and lessons have been learned after being given a 10-point deduction by the RFU.

The punishment was handed down by a three-man Rugby Football Union Independent Competition Panel following a hearing at a London hotel in April after the club admitted four breaches of RFU regulations concerning the London South East 2 game at Horsham on February 20 which they lost 62-7.

The club were relegated at the end of the season after failing to win any of their 22 league games.

The matter only came to light earlier this month when the season’s first league table was published including the sanction.

Asked to comment last week, chairman John Norman said the punishment referred to the club fielding ineligible players.

He added: “We held our hands up and admitted the charge, accepted the punishment and move on.”

However, details of the meeting seen by the Kent Messenger Group confirmed the club admitted:

1) Providing false and misleading information on the result sheet.

2) Selecting and playing six players who did not hold effective registration on the day of the game.

3) Selecting a player who was under the age of 17 (and not permitted to play adult rugby).
Mr Norman also admitted providing false or misleading information (when he counter-signed the result sheet as the away official).

The panel ruled that a deduction of 55 points was the appropriate sanction but reduced it by 15 points to reflect the club’s guilty plea and mitigation.

They also decided 30 points would be suspended until the end of this season to take effect in the event of any further breaches.

Mr Norman was banned from any involvement in on or off the field rugby administration for 20 weeks. That punishment was reduced to five, following his guilty plea and he served out the ban from March 21 to July 4.

A club statement issued on Wednesday said: “The club were called to a meeting with an RFU disciplinary panel regarding the playing of unregistered players.

“The RFU panel accepted there had been no attempt to influence the outcome of the match in question by including ineligible players and that their inclusion had had no impact on the match or result. It had been an attempt to ensure the match was played.

“It accepted there had been problems late on, with players becoming unavailable and the under-age (and unregistered) player was thought to be 17 at the time.

“This was a difficult and embarrassing episode for the club. We did not contest the hearing and we took full responsibility for what had happened and accepted the imposition of minus 10 points to start this season and we will ensure that the suspended points do not come into play.

"We have learnt lessons and changed some of our administrative procedures and now look forward to the current season.”

Mr Norman confirmed he hadn’t considered stepping down and was re-elected as chairman at the annual meeting in July.