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All, The RFU make mention of a pilot for U13s happening somewhere at the minute. There is no mention of this anywhere on their sites with regards to the rules they are playing to but during the "blueprint rugby" roadshows the "aspirational" (not sure who's aspirations but...) idea for this age...

Sunday morning refereeing a Colts game. Muddy conditions and raining hard throughout. About 20 mins in a hard tackle on red 8 from Blue 13, man and ball and driven into the ground. Initial contact was the ball but arm moved upwards from there, nothing much in it from my point of view. Red 8...

On Sunday morning I took my son to play in a youth match (U17s level) away from home. 10 minutes into the game the referee (a society one) badly twisted his ankle (possible break) and had to stop. Being the only other person there with a qualification I was asked if I would take over, which I...

On Saturday the following situation happened. Blue scrum within their own 22. Whistle blown, no signal for penalty or free kick or for offence which caused the whistle to be blown. Blue SH asked ref what the whistle was for. As he did Red SH gabbed ball and tapped it. Blue SH stopped him. Ref...

This Sunday morning I answered a plea from my club's youth chair to go and referee the under 14s. Lovely morning, if a tad cold, but the lads from both clubs put on a great performance. The scoreline was a little one sided but didn't seem to bother either sets of players. From my point of view I...

Just want to pick your brains if I can. We are fast approaching the NRoP for U10s in our region. This restricts the tackle area / contest for the ball at a tackle to the ball carrier, the tackler plus one other player from each team. Does anyone have any experience of this and how it works in...

Saturday saw my club's 2nd XV playing their 4th league game of the season. This is the second saturday in a row where the referee has finished the game, got changed and left before providing either team with the final score or a feedback card. Is this normal? It is a bit of a pain as the home...

Sure I've seen this somewhere but can't find a reference or Law to back it up. Red player kicks for touch, Blue winger running back to cover the line jumps from inside the pitch and hits the ball which had crossed the plane of touch back into the field of play but lands in touch. He was in the...

Have a senior 7s tournament coming up fast and some of my squad are pushing for places. I have been told that the U18 rule doesn't apply to 7s (which I thing it does as the IRB variations for 7s don't make any mention of this - therefore I assume it remains the same as the standard game, i.e no...

On Friday evening I took two calls, one sadly cancelling our Colts match giving me a Sunday off and a second asking me to referee for a local club who happened to be playing my club's Under 15s. They were in a muddle without a referee so I agreed. Lots of checking back to review the correct age...

In the last two weeks my Colts have had two games both taken by gentlemen wearing society kit. We have had the following; - Can't wear those boots as they have football studs. - At scrumtime, "Crouch, touch, engage" - Following a Y/C for dissent (pointing out the correct CTPE!!!!) we faced an 8...

In our 2nd team match on Saturday about 15 mins before kick off the ref does the stud check. He does this by sight only and advises two players (both winners) that their boots are illegal as "they are football boots with football studs" and they "are too narrow", he goes on to advise "they...

Due to the MOD kindly moving most of my volunteer referees (at very short notice). These are the guys who cover our youth matches and my club will be struggling a shade for the next few weeks until they are home (safely we hope). If there is anyone in the Norfolk area who could help us out...

I'm trying to find details of age restrictions for referees. Am told referees under 18 have to referee games at an age group lower than they would play. Can't find this anywhere and am wondering if we have another urban myth......

All, I arrived at a local 7s tournament (U16, U17 & Colts) yesterday morning to find that 5 of the 7 appointed referees had called within 30 minutes of the start of the event. The organiser was running round and asking those of us who coach and are qualified whether we could ref between...

My understanding is football style shinpads (i.e hard plastic shell type) are no allowed (no provision under Law 4). Am I right on this?

This weekends rugby threw up a couple of questions I'm hoping you can answer; Under 16 game. Blue player collapses in a heap away from play. This is a medical issue (not rugby caused) and ambulance is called. Referee comes to Red captain and explains the clock cannot be stopped due to child...

My winger was spear tackled by opponent yesterday. Driven into ground. The referee delivered a stern talking to and the match continued with a penalty. We chose to run this and the same player then delivered a clothesline tackle again the referee delivered a stern talking too and the game...

From my U16s game yesterday. Red hacks ball from 22 towards try line. Winger (Red) and FB (gold) race for ball. Gold (defender) dives on ball and slides with ball in hand and on the ground over try line. Believes he should have got 22 drop out but as he is getting up the Red winger puts hand on...

My son (15 and also a newly qualified ref) and I were watching a game of super league this morning and there was a try scored which we both questioned. Red in attack from 5 metres out put a cross field kick in which was going to the right hand corner and would have gone dead in the air (no...