Wynne Gray: Send sub rules to the bloodbin

It became farcical in 1965 when the New Zealand University side played the Boks.

Fullback Mick Williment went off injured almost before spectators had taken their seats, Chris Laidlaw was gone inside half an hour and not long after, Ian Uttley was taken to the Zambuck rooms.

Playing the Boks at full strength was tough enough but in those days when substitutions were not allowed, it was ludicrous to have a dozen men taking on a full touring side.

There was a Boys Own edge to a tale 15 years earlier when Ron Elvidge left Athletic Park with a damaged collarbone and head wounds. A doctor, Elvidge returned later with his wounds dressed and roamed around as an extra fullback before diving over for a try.

These days an All Black test is a 22-man game with a seven-man rack of substitutes to cater for temporary injury, fatigue or as the Lions found out in one of their recent tests against the Boks, replacement when one of their props is a dud.

Once the laws were amended to allow substitutes, they started to be bent even more.

Fortunately All Black lock Mark Cooksley remembered to shuffle from the field after being told he was hurt so Ian Jones could get on the field against the 1993 Lions, while there were attempts to get Jeff Wilson from the field with a blood excuse after he suffered a migraine in 1997.

In the end it did not matter as Wilson did not recover.

However the levels of concern about bloodbin substitutions rose so much a few years later that officials did not believe All Black lock Norm Maxwell was being replaced because of a torn scrotum. The ref almost needed reviving after his request to check the injury.

Then there was the famous exit of Springbok lock Os du Randt from the test arena in 1996 when he claimed he had "had it" and was stretchered off against the All Blacks.

There have been many questionable injury exits for rugby players where officials have used the rules to their advantage. Most of those departures seem acceptable when compared with the Bloodgate case of Harlequins coach Dean Richards and wing Tom Williams.

Even the "blood" which gushed so suddenly from his mouth looked false, which was unsurprising given it was acquired from a joke shop in Clapham. The entire episode was absurd in its naivety.

But it does underline the problems for rugby with their bloodbin and substitute rules.

Rugby could take a lesson from the fraternal five-tackle-kick code where sides are allowed 10 interchanges during a game.

Once those are used up, team's options are kaput, just like Dean Richards' reputation.