In many cases (but by no means all), a Society man drafted in for a tournament overestimates the base level of the players and can prevent a game breaking out.
Thanks for the "no means all" comment there Dixie.
Yes, what Dixie says is true; in England, most Society refs never do games below U15 and so not only do they not know the variations for mini/midi matches they tend to totally overestimate the skills, knowledge and intents of the kids.
In England, below U12, repeated offences are always down to either lack of skill or the kids are doing it wrong because they've been coached by a well meaning (or over competitive) coach who has coached them to do something incorrectly.
Penalising the kids for either of those just causes a load of upset kids and parents and a referee who will swear to never do mini/midis again.
U11 down in England* involves a lot of coaching from whoever's in the middle with the whistle.
From U12 up things start to change; skills build up and the kids who haven't given rugby up to play football (or the xbox) tend to be keen and watch the professionals cheating on the telly and try to copy them. But it's still a
start to change. Most with any skill will try to play as properly as they can. Most of the others just don't have the skills [yet].
*My experience of Welsh teams is different. I assume because rugby is more in the culture that side of the river, Welsh U11 and below teams seem to be keener and better coached to cheat than English ones. This may also be due to the Welsh regulations requiring qualified referees - as everyone knows the ref is qualified, perhaps coaching to take advantage of the ref is "fair game" there?