A Guide To Contact Rugby And The Age You Need To Be To Play.

Rugby is a complex game and a physically abrasive contact sport. As such, not all the elements of the game can be introduced straight away. If they were, it would be counterproductive to the development of the new player. Here’s what I found out about the contact aspects of rugby and when you can play them.

Contact rugby is introduced to 7 and 8-year-old children in years 2 or 3 of primary / elementary school. In some countries, aspects of the contact game are introduced to children in year 2, which is the under 8’s age bracket. Most kids will be playing full contact rugby by the time they reach 15.

The contact elements of the sport are introduced slowly, in stages, moving up through the age brackets. How old children are when they start playing contact rugby; and what aspects of the contact game are phased in at what age, depends on the country they live in.

How old do you need to be to play contact rugby?

Rugby is a sport with just so many rules. It’s simply too complicated for every aspect of the game to be coached and played straight away. It would be overwhelming for kids, not exactly safe, and just simply not much fun.

This is why rugby is phased in slowly, so that children can grasp its concept and enjoy playing it in a safe environment. An environment where they can learn the simplified core elements of the game. Such as running in space, passing, catching and offloading, before being introduced to more complex systems and the contact nature of the sport.

Across the world, countries have rugby coaching and playing frameworks for 6-18 year olds; this ensures the safe development of young players in rugby clubs, rugby playing schools and colleges.

The rugby pathway programme in Wales is an example of one such framework. Here’s what the former head coach of the Welsh rugby team Warren Gatland had to say about it:-

It encourages young players to develop and enjoy many aspects of the modern game.

This will be done by concentrating on the specifics at an early age of passing, catching, running, offloading and continuity.

Warren gatland on the rugby pathway programme in Wales

These junior player programmes have been designed to introduce children to contact rugby gradually. This means that only certain parts of the contact game can be played, depending on the age group playing.

As a child moves up through the age brackets, they’ll start to play more and more aspects of contact rugby until eventually they reach an age where they’re playing the full contact game.

So let’s go through some of these different areas of contact…..

What are the different areas of contact in rugby?

The tackle

Children in the U7 age bracket and some in the U8 (this depends on the country they play in) play a non-contact form of the game, where the tackle is replaced by the action of ripping a tag from the belt of a player.

Once they hit either year 3 or 4 of school, they are introduced to their first aspect of contact rugby – the tackle.

The Scrum

Sometimes I think of the scrum as the beating heart of a game of rugby union. It’s an intense, exciting, close contact encounter. A contest, which in a full contact game of rugby, combines the technique and raw physical power of one 8 man pod, pitted against another 8 man pod.

Attacking or defending decisions made by players in and around the scrum, can lead into multiple areas of contact in a very short space of time. Examples of these decisions might be:-

• Number 8 pick and go
• Scrum half pick and go
• Defending scrum half or flankers targetting attacking scrum half

And so the scrum and the potential plays around it, need to be introduced in stages.

The Lineout

A team will be awarded a lineout when the ball goes out of play on either side of the pitch. Each team of forwards (apart from the hookers) form a line and these two lines stand parallel, 1 metre apart. The hooker then throws the ball down the middle of the 2 lines, having made a coded call as to where he is aiming along the line. This gives the team awarded the lineout a head start in competing for the ball.

Both teams will then jump (some players will be held in the air with the help of lifters) in an attempt to retrieve possession. The ball is then either taken into a maul by the receiver, or fed towards the back line and into open play.

When are these areas of contact rugby phased in?

Check out the table below which clearly lays out the elements of contact rugby that are introduced to certain age groups, and how this varies depending on the country you live in.