I have posted this on the Wakefield forum but thought I would ask a wider audience. At the moment my side is playing in their first season at Under 7's RL, "Primary" Rugby as it is now called. The rules for the under 7's state that any knock on or running into touch doesn't result in a turnover to the other side, and each side must play their set of six in full regardless of errors, unless a try is scored.



The problem we have as a U7's side is that teams offload the ball anywhere several times each set, obviously with them being 6 or 7 years old the offloads are often of poor quality and go to ground, sometimes bobbling all over - sometimes ending up with the attacking side picking it up, sometimes the defending side pick it up. If the defenders pick it up, the attacking side get the ball back and continue with their set - if the attacking side pick it up then play continues, many times resulting in the attacking side breaking away as given the nature of the game most of the kids swarm round the tackle area leaving acres of space at either side of the ruck. I appreciate the theory behind the rule, to let the kids try things without fear of failure but think it is counter productive letting them thrown the ball anywhere, as it is a risk free play with no downside.



My question is, at what age does the ruling change so that knock ons/loss of the ball/running into touch result in a turnover - the rules seem a little unclear to me. Rule 7b states:



"at the youngest participation age, each team must complete a full set of six including errors....."



Does the "youngest participation age" refer to under 7's specifically, or does it refer to the whole "Primary" RL (ages U7-U9)? I have tweeted the Yorkshire JARL and Primary RL and emailed the RFL but wondered if anybody else knew?



At the moment we are trying to teach the kids in what we believe to be the correct manner, respecting the ball and not running into touch (it's their instinct to run round the outside of the other team rather than through them), maybe we have got it wrong and we should be letting them throw the ball anywhere instead.



Thanks

You don't tell them that winning doesn't matter. No post has suggested that.

You do though, encourage the attitude that performance, work, training, development and improvement are more important.

Of course winning matters, nobody likes losing. I'm not saying coaches should go over the top and start bullying young kids but when you have a poor game and lose the coaches ride you harder in training and that comes from losing.

For me its no coincidence that the players that get signed up are from the best amateur teams, and the decent players who play for the poorer teams move to the better teams.

Who has said winning doesn't matter? Why are you ranting as if someone has?



The coaches response should be based on the performance, not the result. It's possible to play badly and win and also play well and lose. Working hard in training certainly should not only be related to the losing the previous match.

That's if you're going to be a reactive rather than proactice coach, but that's another subject.

Yes thanks, I've also coached for the last 10 years. I've consistently told the 13-16 year olds I've coached (as well as the under 13's) that winning doesn't matter. It's the amateur game. It's supposed to be played for fun, for the enjoyment of the game, for personal improvement physically, mentally and socially. Compared to those factors, winning doesn't matter at all. If winning is vital to you then you've fundamentally misunderstood why the amateur game is there.

Min/mod rules: files.pitchero.com/clubs/1907/mi ... 0rules.pdf Primary rules: media.rladmin.co.uk/docs/Primary ... 202012.pdf There might be odd variance in some leagues but (hopefully) everyone is heading towards a common set! Personal view on the knock-on stuff is that a bit of coaches common sense comes into it....

Min/mod rules: files.pitchero.com/clubs/1907/mi ... 0rules.pdf Primary rules: media.rladmin.co.uk/docs/Primary ... 202012.pdf There might be odd variance in some leagues but (hopefully) everyone is heading towards a common set! Personal view on the knock-on stuff is that a bit of coaches common sense comes into it....