Thinking of seeing if the wee man might enjoy throwing a rugby ball around. He’s only 4 this month, though, so perhaps early days. He goes to a little kickers football class, is there a rugby equivalent that anyone is involved with? The football class is more socialisation than anything else tbh, not much to do with skills etc.

I never played rugby – going to school in Liverpool the oval ball was not welcome. So what does a kid’s rugby game look like, say a 11 yo rugby league match? Is it like a mini-adult game or do they make certain changes to the structure of the game?

There are various mini / kids variants of the game

My boy’s rugby club starts with Under6 tag rugby. I think there’s a Rugby4Fun group for the younger kids.
The season has finished pretty much everywhere, but a lot of clubs do taster days during the summer – might be worth looking up a local club and seeing if they have something like that.

my son started paying at 7, making it to county level by 16.
he is now 20 and retired.
dont push them to play seriously and let them decide when they have had enough of playing.
i made that mistake.

I’ve been trying to get my lads (6 and 7) to go to mini/tag Rugby but neither are remotely interested.

I think at an early age (up to 7)it’s non-contact. The kids have ribbons on a belt and if someone manages to grab one they have to pass and after a number of tags turn the ball over to the opposition.

After that it’s mini rugby with full tackling, rucks, mauls etc.

My son started at 6 and enjoyed it until the coaches started getting a bit more serious in the next age group.

My daughter started playing a couple of weeks before she turned 4. She loved it and still does.

Get in early, but no pressure. The club should let you try them out for as many weeks as you need before they ask you for fees.

Have fun!

My son started two months before his sixth birthday.
Hes been playing touch rugby for seven months now, and his confidence with school and rugby has rocketed since scoring his first try and is now scoring every game. 😉

dont push them to play seriously and let them decide when they have had enough of playing.
i made that mistake.

But didn’t you play for Wakefield? Lot to live up to….

I started playing rugby aged around 6. Though I grew up in Oxfordshire, and my father’s a footballer, the influence of my mother’s Welsh upbringing gave me a love of the game.

Went to a public school, so rugby dominated sporting life. Stopped when I left school – was too busy playing hockey at a decent level.

I’d never return to the game (36 this year), though sometimes I’d love to play again – that feeling of felling some big feller or jinking past a flat footed second row is pretty cool.

Rugby league all day for me these days – always followed Wigan as a lad (they were on TV a lot, I guess). Just as well the girl I met practically grew up at Central Park….

So what does a kid’s rugby game look like, say a 11 yo rugby league match? Is it like a mini-adult game or do they make certain changes to the structure of the game?

In answer to this – I would think League games are pretty similar to the adult game, we play Union down these parts and the Mini-Rugby rules mean its pretty similar to League anyway (ie. no rucks & mauls).
At under 9 there are some pretty big hits going in! 🙂

stop thinking about it.. buy him a cheap ball and play with him with it. If he enjoys it, you “should” too 🙂 .
TBH as soon as kids can hold a ball they are ready to enjoy playing with one, You can leave the structured/club thing until he actually wants to.

You’ll be a taxi service/sidelines Dad soon enough once he joins all the afterschool/weekend activities they hear about through School. I’d make the most of your time together now.

You’ll be a taxi service/sidelines Dad soon enough

I look forward to that all week! Not now seasons finished though 🙁

my son started at u7s and has carried on through to u13s. The seasons only just finished and he’s already missing training and playing – he can’t wait to start u14s in September!

Don’t push it too hard but try and find a club with a good set up – all age groups and decent coaches who want the kids to enjoy the game. 17 of the 22 in the squad started at u7 – they are his best mates in school and he sees most of them outside.

One warning – prepare for some injuries if they carry on – mine has had a broken collar bone, 9 stitches in his forehead and a broken nose from rugby!

i put my good looks and health down to 30+ years of contact sport…….. 😉

My daughter began Rugby Tots at 2.25, and it takes them through to 7. Highly recommended!

http://www.rugbytots.co.uk/

It’s basically a Little Kickers for rugby.

My friends kids started i think at under 6 tag rugby.

Personally, can’t wait for all this although a few years off yet. My nipper went to his first match at Gloucester at circa 6 weeks old so hopefully he won’t go near a football 😀

local club does micros for age 4-5 (lots of running about etc) I ended up helping out with the training. No pressure was put on my eldest at 4 when he started and he enjoyed it, missed the odd week when the weather was bad or he was particularly tired. At 6 they start playing tag

I started playing mini rugby at age 7.

I’d never even heard of rugby – my Dad played football and football was the only game in town at my school, but my Dad really didn’t like the kids football setups, so sent me to the local rugby club. I was totally clueless – I distinctly remember breaking away to score in my first ever training game, getting across the line and throwing the ball down, American Football style! 😳

It was a great setup for kids though. Played 8-a-side on a small pitch. Full contact then, but some changes to the rules. No kicking (so it’s all about passing/running/skills) and 3-a-side scrums with 2 props and a lock (i.e. no hooker – but think they’ve changed that to 2 props and a hooker now). Can’t remember how they did line-outs, but with no kicking there wouldn’t have been very many. No goalposts – the only way to score was a try.

A big difference from kids football at the time, which was full, adult size pitches, 11 a-side, full-size goals with tiny wee goalkeepers, etc.

I loved it, played right through minis, juniors (more-or-less full adult game from age 13) and seniors. Only quit about age 26 when I broke my back in a road accident. Still miss it!

Take him down next season – it’ll start September-ish.

I was an RFU mini and junior coach for 5 years until I emigrated last year. All club rugby is governed by RFU rules and coaching guidance. He’ll start of in the Tots just runing around with the ball really and then progress to Minis and then Juniors etc. It’ll be tag rugby until U9 I think when tackling starts. No hand-offs until U13. Uncontested scrums come in around then as wel but don’t become contested until the next year and even then they can only shove 1.5m so it’s really a restart like in League. The game duration will also grow but normally the coaches of each team will agree something sensible, depending on numbers, weather etc. 40mins each way won’t happen until adult rugby.

My son started in the U7 and loved it more and more each year. We moved to NZ and ironically he now doesn’t want to play, which is fustrating. The big difference here is that they have weight restricted rugby so the litle skinny lads can play without getting hurt and the big lads learn skills rather then being able to run the length of the field every time. That said, most of the Islander boys here are older than they say and enormous so there is no shortage of sizeable players.

In England the kids still have to call the ref “Sir” and they will get disciplined for poor sportsmanship. All good stuff.

Get him into rugby if you can. It’s the best team sport in the world and arguably one of the most social – most countries in the world have a rugby club that’ll make other players welcome.

What Poopsies said.

Rugby Union has a continuum which defines what kids can and cannot do at each age level in order to gradually introduce different skills and more physicality. Tag played until under 9s when tackling is introduced.

I coach under 10s and at my club kids are welcome at any age when they are able to take part, but they are all together up to and including under 7s.

I have heard good things about rugbytots, but have no direct experience. Likelwise I have no direct knowledge of rugby league, but many of the core skills are the same (catching, passing, running, tackling) with only the technical aspects varying.

Take him along to your local club and see what they say and how comfortable you feel about the whole thing.

Lots of good advice already, just to add my 2p worth I’d say buy yourselves a small rugby ball for you to play around with (bit of gentle catching/kicking etc).Take him along to your local club when the season starts again,normaly 1st Sunday morning in September (my boys u16s start preseason training next month !) and just have a wander around and watch what happens,have a chat with some of the coaches/parents. If he’s interested great, if not try just going along to watch every few weeks ,some kids take to it straight away some take a bit longer and some will just not be into it at all.
Good luck to you both its a great sport to be involved in.

+ Poopsies – we joined our local club this year for my eldest boy, U9s. Everything is super well organised with the emphasis on fun and discipline. My boy just won a wee medal for Consistancy, ie turning up to every game and training session whatever the weather. He loves it and I’m very glad to see the coaches be quite tough with them, they dont stand for any messing about but its still a terrific, friendly atmosphere for us all to be involved in as a family.

Join your local club, with any luck you will have a similar set-up. Bunch of dads and former first team seniors putting something back into the club by coaching the kids. Plan is for the same coaching team to stay with them right through as they grow up.

I’m another one who grew up playing football, at quite a high level. Much much nicer atmosphere.

Rugby Union has a continuum which defines what kids can and cannot do at each age level in order to gradually introduce different skills and more physicality. Tag played until under 9s when tackling is introduced.

Has this changed?

I remember at club level I played mini rugby from 6 or 7 but at (prep) school it was 15-a-side plus some 7s from around 8 years old. Played in the half backs with England 2003 world cup player (Andy Gomarsall). He was pretty handy back then…. 😉

ourmaninthenorth – schoolz is different. Clubs will be minis until about age 12.

Gotcha.

This was all nearly 30 years ago..!

(Goes off to see if there’s mini-rugby league for girls)

EDIT: I ought to add that a colleague – a football man through and through – has taken his youngest lad to play rugby league on the basis that it’s a much more supportive game than junior football (which seems to involve abusive parents and bad attitudes).

ourmaninthenorth – schools rugby is run on a different basis to club rugby. won’t go into the politics here, but most state schools do tag up to under 11s and then contact from under 12s whilst public schools go straight into contact. club rugby in england introduces contact at under nines.

girls and boys play together until under 13s when they separate

won’t go into the politics here

I can imagine it’s rife..!

sorry, all my comments are about union, not league

girls and boys play together until under 13s when they separate

I remember a family of three sons (all superb players – one having spent time at Northants) and their sister who was the best player on the Bicester minis team by far..!

sorry, all my comments are about union, not league

I grew up playing union. But I now live in league country (near Wigan). I suspect Little Miss North has no choice but to support the cherry and whites! (and she can support Cardiff Blues, her grandmother’s union club.)

My 4 year old just started rugby tots and he loves it.
If there isn’t one near you consider starting one up, our local one is real popular.
He is in Reigate, surrey.

He is in Reigate, surrey.

I remember playing at Old Reigatians as a 12 year old in about 1989. The sloping ceiling in the bar had interesting wallpaper.

Wigan RUFC

I first played rugby in my first week of my rugby-orientated High School (at U12s it was standard Union rules, but matches were shorter, a smaller ball(?) and we played on a smaller pitch. Our 1st XV pitch was one of the biggest/widest around, I believe) and played/trained a lot, for school (playing against the private schools of the North and some in the South) and county, until going to university where I played a few times and then gave it up.

I really enjoyed playing the game, but couldn’t be bothered with the rugby ‘culture’ and the injuries were frequent.

Hi all,

I have recently set up a sports coaching company that accommodates Garry’s initial question, Munchkin Sports Ltd.
We gently introduce children between 2-7yrs in to sport.
We currently have a thriving Rugby Munchkins class that is proving very successful and growing rapidly.
Please take a look at our website and feel free to get in touch to answer any questions/queries.

http://www.munchkinsportsltd.com

Rgrds
Luke

Only quit about age 26 when I broke my back in a road accident.

Holy F!

Another shout for rugby tots. Its more about participation than learning the sport at the younger age though. My daughter started at about 2 and has been going for the last year. She loves it.

Proud Dad moment: One of our daughters friends snatched a packet of crisps out of her hands and ran off with them. Daughter promptly gives chase and full on tackles said friend to the ground. Not sure where she learnt to tackle like that, but i failed miserably at telling her that she was being a bit over the top.

Just remembered this thread and wondered how the new season has started for everyone.Seemed to be quite a lot of new kids at our minis on Sunday.

my 4yo just started minis last weekend and enjoyed it. he’s done about 6 months of rugbytots previously but found minis a bit of a change, being mixed in with up to 6yr olds who are rather more competitive. That said, he’s about the same size as them so he’ll get used to that.

My 6 yr old son is still loving it, won most improved player last year and has his first game of the season Sunday.
He asked almost every day through the holidays, how long until rugby starts?