Age-grade guidance

Coaching guides

What changes as players grow: the game they play, contact, and how the session planner follows it.

1. Age by age
2. Age group | Typically | In the session planner
3. U8 | Small games, often tag or touch, without scrums or line-outs. | Only drills without contact.
4. U10, U12 | Contact brought in carefully, with smaller teams and simple set pieces. | Drills with controlled contact, never full contact.
5. U14, U16 | Full contact built up in stages, with more players and real set pieces. | Full-contact drills from U14.
6. U18 | Close to the adult game, with the age-grade law variations. | All drills, with a qualified coach at every contact group.
7. Senior | The full game. | All drills.
8. Good to know
9. Your union decides the format for each age group. Its rules always come before this guide and before the planner.
10. Players grow at different speeds: group them by size and experience too, not by date of birth alone.
11. Keep sessions shorter, with more games, for the youngest; use more structured blocks from about U14.
12. Let a player play up an age group only when your union allows it and the coach and the parents agree.

• The builder leaves out drills meant for an older age group, but you know your players best.