Five players were cited after the first round of matches in the World Cup, raising fears that squads could be severely hit by suspensions in the latter stages of the tournament. The International Rugby Board believes that would not be too high a price to pay in its bid to clean up the game.

Citing used to be the preserve of the two teams involved in a match, but most desisted from taking official action for fear they would be hit by a counter action. So this World Cup has seen the introduction of a citing commissioner, who watches a match on television and then decides whether any of the players should face disciplinary action.

Teams no longer have the right to cite, although they are able to lodge a complaint for the citing commissioner to investigate. The first two players to be cited, the Wales flanker Colin Charvis and the Argentina prop Roberto Grau, had punching charges to answer, but far more serious accusations - of gouging, stamping and biting - were made by both sides privately after the game. However neither side asked the commissioner for the opening match, the South African lawyer Piet Nieuman, to consider taking action.

Disciplinary proceedings were taken against four of the five cited players for punching: Charvis, Grau, the Spain second row Jose Miguel Villau and the Samoa prop Brendan Reidy. A Tongan player has been called to account for an alleged dangerous tackle during Sunday's match against New Zealand in Bristol.

Punch-ups have long been regarded as a part of rugby, a way of clearing the air and sorting problems out, but the IRB, through Rugby World Cup Ltd, is looking, as it were, to stamp out the problem.

"Common sense has to be applied," said Argentina's coach Alex Wyllie. "The stakes are high during the World Cup and there is tension in the middle. If players are going to be cited every time a punch is thrown quite a few will be banned by the final week of the tournament. That cannot be good for the game."

The citing commissioners will meet over the weekend to discuss their role and whether they have been consistent. While Charvis and Grau were charged with punching, Ireland's second row Paddy Johns and the American second row Luke Gross escaped punishment after their stand-up fight in Dublin on Saturday evening.

"Rugby is a physical sport and there will always be an element of confrontation," said the IRB chairman Vernon Pugh. "This is not a crusade to make punch-ups a thing of the past: the heat of the moment will always generate intemperate actions, but players indulging in sneaky punches or other sly acts of foul play have a greater chance than ever of being made to account for their actions.

"It is not an attempt to undermine referees. Just because a referee has shown a player a yellow card it does not mean that he has seen an incident in its entirety. That was a weakness of the old system but a citing commissioner has the benefit not only of seeing a match on television, but he is also sent the full footage of reverse camera angles. His judgment is based on a belief that if a referee had been in full possession of the facts, he would have taken a different course of action."

The IRB's crackdown has come at the request of the major Southern Hemisphere nations who have taken a hard line in the Super 12 series. Players found guilty of offences such as biting and gouging face suspensions of up to three years, and the physical abuse of match officials carries a life ban.

In the past, suspensions have been fixed: four weeks for a punch, six weeks for stamping and so on. The current sanctions are far more flexible: for example, butting carries a ban of between seven and 26 weeks allowing for a considerable amount of discretion.

"The image of the game is vitally important," said Pugh. "The IRB recently conducted a survey into the game in Germany, asking why it had failed to take off there. The main point which emerged was that rugby was perceived to be a brutal game, and the same is true in other countries.

"I do not consider that there has been an over-reaction by the citing commissioners in the World Cup. They are all very experienced rugby men, but it is important that we have consistency, not just in terms of sentencing but also in the citing of players."