Referees have been instructed to crack down on ‘football-style’ backchat by players during the NatWest Six Nations Championship, Telegraph Sport understands.

Referees have been encouraged to issuing yellow cards or penalise the offending team and march them back 10 metres, if officials feel that their decisions are not being respected.

It is understood the directive was agreed at referee meetings on the past two Wednesdays, the first of which also involved the Six Nations head coaches in London, the second of which was held at Heathrow airport.

The issue of dissent towards officials has been an increasing concern for rugby’s powerbrokers, after a number of high-profile incidents, such as Wales fly-half Dan Biggar’s reaction to South African referee Craig Joubert after he was shown a yellow card against Australia in Nov 2016.

Player backchat to referees was top of the agenda on Wednesday and there was a general consensus about the need to reaffirm the policy of only captains speaking to officials.