Very harsh punishment for a volunteers honest mistake. the club should be punished not the team. morally anyway under the circumstances.
And herein lies the issue: there is no way rules can differentiate between an honest mistake or a rort. So the only way is to enforce them and by doing so discouraging those that break them now on the basis they will probably get away with it. Uni has made a mistake, and honourably put their hand up for it, whereas other(s) have not. Unfortunately is has cost them dearly, which seems unfair/unreasonable, and I feel for the them.
Yes if the team cards were checked each week this would have been flaged up after the opening round, and University docked 3 points but would still be in the Chatham Cup and leading Div 1.