New disciplinary rules will go on trial during this year's Super 15 competition in an effort to create a more effective and consistent system.

South Africa, New Zealand and Australia Rugby's major motivations behind the changes are to simplify the structure and lessen the costs of judicial hearings.

One of the most important changes is that a referee can now refer any incident to the citing commissioner if he feels that he has missed foul play during the course of a match, or if he believes he has mistaken the identity of a transgressor.

If a player complains to the referee about an illegal incident such as eye gouging, and the official didn't see the incident, he has the power to ask the citing officer to review the alleged incident on television replay.

And even if the referee has issued a yellow card or awarded a penalty, he can ask the citing officer to review those incidents as well.

Another significant change is that the citing commissioner can award an "off-field yellow card", meaning that wrongdoers will be censured even if they escape punishment during a match.

The off-field yellow card will be lodged against the player's disciplinary record.

"Sanzar has long held the view that the disciplinary process could be enhanced to provide for a more consistent and simplified outcome," said chief executive Greg Peters.

"We believe that these changes are an important step in the right direction."

There are also a raft of changes to the judicial hearing and appeals process, which are aimed at smoothing logistics to accommodate travelling citing officers and players.

These changes have been endorsed by the International Rugby Board and will form part of the IRB's review of regulation 17 that covers the disciplinary process globally.