Tom Williams walks off with a 'blood injury' during Harlequins' Heineken Cup defeat by Leinster © Getty Images

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Premier Rugby director of rugby Phil Winstanley believes that another 'Bloodgate' scandal is unlikely in light of the regulations introduced last season to prevent the exploitation of the rules of the game.

Harlequins were last year found to have fabricated a blood injury in order to facilitate a tactical substitution in the closing stages of their Heineken Cup clash with Leinster. Consequently, Premier Rugby chiefs decided to allow doctors from opposing teams to examine any alleged blood injury suffered by a player during the course of the game.

That rule will, in Winstanley's view, dissuade any club trying to cynically bend the rules to their advantage again.

"We have put the right steps in place (to make sure it never happens again) and all the clubs have the opportunity to look at those," said Winstanley. "We introduced the blood inspection protocol, which gives the opposition medical teams the ability to look at any cuts or any injuries for players to come off. The fact it is there is a reassurance. There were no incidences at all of anyone questioning whether there was a cut.

"We also tried to tidy up the whole technical area and get people off the touchline. It was becoming far too congested and we have done that."

Winstanley is also of the opinion that the decision to extend match-day squads to 23 players, in order to allow clubs to include an extra prop, has been of huge benefit to the integrity of the game.

"Uncontested scrums have been a concern of mine for a number of years," he said, alluding to accusations that certain sides, who were struggling in the set-piece, would fake injuries to prop in a bid to neutralise an area in which they were being dominated.

"We have been pushing for change through the Rugby Football Union and International Rugby Board and we got somewhere last year with a revision to the regulations with the extra front-row man on the bench."