IAPS OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON U8 – U13 RUGBY

IAPS OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON U8 – U13 RUGBY

As many of you will be aware IAPS have been engaged in a consultation process with the RFU over the last 18 months where we were able to express the views of our member schools and offer our opinions on how we felt the game should be played. The process of consultation about the New Rules of Play has now passed and the RFU have made their decisions about how the game of rugby will be played under their laws in both clubs and schools.

An Age Grade Competition Review has taken place since 2011 looking at the competitive offering in the game at various age grades as well as the recommended Implementation Plan. The group were tasked to look at clarifying the age bands to fit in with the school model, looking at how the New Rules of Play should be introduced into schools and considering how the competition structure of the game should be arranged to reduce the conflict of school, club, county and beyond.

Playing Format Progression

The attachment shows a very simplified summary of the progression in numbers, format changes and positional transitions at each age group in the NROP.

All schools will be obliged to follow play by the NROP once it has all been ratified by the RFU Council which is likely to be in April 2015 with a view to have mandatory implementation in September 2016.

IAPS is strongly recommending that from September 2015, all IAPS schools move across to the NROP in the U8, U9, U10 and U11 age groups.

It will be mandatory for all schools to comply with these changes in 2016 and we will therefore take the opportunity to phase them in and implement a transition year. There is still some work to be done on the U12 and U13 rules to make them work for schools and clubs where Year 7 & 8 are combined and the additional year will allow enough time for this to be done.

In 2016 U12 and U13s will be required to move to the new rules, by which stage the final adjustments to the laws will have been ratified.

A summary of the practical impact of the changes on the children for 2015/16 compared to what they played in the 2014/15 season is as follows.

 The Under 8 age group will only have played tag (if anything) so they will be unaffected.
 The vast majority of the Under 9 age group will only have played tag so they will be unaffected.
 The Under 10 group will play a very similar game to the previous year but without lineouts and with limited contesting at the contact area.
 The Under 11 age group will have lost the contested scrum* and line out, and will have limited ability to contest the contact area compared to the previous year.
 There will be no change to the U12 or U13 rules until 2016 by which stage the RFU will have looked at ensuring that the issues with the scrum have been resolved.

*The RFU are reviewing the uncontested 3 man scrum for U11s as we feel that a contested 3 man scrum could build a better progression from U10 rules and some preparation for the contested scrum.