Running a session, the questions that come up
How long, how many helpers plus what to do if you never played.
Every grade
Free to read with no account. They work at a pitch with no signal too.
The answers
How long should a training session be?
About an hour, though 45 minutes is plenty at U7 and U8. Clubs book slots of 45, 60 or 75 minutes, which is why the ready-made sessions here come at those lengths. The last ten minutes of a long session with seven-year-olds is rarely worth having.
How many drills should I plan for an hour?
Four or five, with a game at the end. A warm-up, two pieces of work, then something where they have to use it under a bit of pressure. Plan more than that and you'll either rush it or drop it, which children notice either way.
How many helpers do I need?
One adult per group of about five or six once you're running stations. Twenty children and four parents is four groups rotating round four corners of a pitch, which is what most sessions actually look like. The carousel sessions here are built for exactly that.
I never played rugby. Can I still coach it?
Most people running a minis age group never played, so you're in the majority rather than the exception. What you need is what going right looks like and what going wrong looks like, which is why every drill here says both. Your club will put you through a coaching course. The rest is turning up.
What kit do I actually need to bring?
Cones, a few balls of the right size, bibs in two colours and a pump. Tag belts up to U8. Shields and pads arrive with contact at U9 and your club will have them, so borrow before you buy anything yourself. Each session here prints a kit list off the drills in it.
What should the first session of the season be?
Handling, plus whatever arrives at your grade this year. Every squad picks up new players in September who have never done last year's work either, so the new thing isn't the only thing to cover. Each grade's rules guide here ends with what to get in before the first game.
How much of a session should be games rather than drills?
More than feels right the first time you try it. Children learn to play by playing. A drill with no pressure in it produces a skill that falls apart the moment somebody chases them. Finish on a game where they have to use whatever you worked on.
Equal Play is not affiliated with the RFU. Regulation 15 is theirs. These answers put it in our own words, so they are a summary rather than the thing itself. It is reissued every summer as well, so read this season's there rather than trusting a copy on somebody else's website. Ours included. If a referee on match day says something different to this page, they are right.
Read against the RFU's 2026/27 appendices in August 2026.
What your grade is allowed to do
The answers above say what the rule is. The rules guides say what a whole grade may do, which is the thing to read in August rather than in a car park.
- What U7 rugby looks like
- What U8 rugby looks like
- What U9 rugby looks like
- What U10 rugby looks like
- What U11 rugby looks like
- What U12 rugby looks like
The other questions
- Tag rugby. Tags, the three second count plus the six tag turnover. U7 and U8 only.
- The tackle. How high, what counts as held plus what the tackler has to do next.
- Ruck and maul. Who may join, what "Use it" means plus where the offside line sits.
- The scrum. Three players at U10, five at U12, nobody pushing at either.
- Restarts and touch. Free passes, free kicks plus why there is no lineout anywhere in minis.
- Kicking. What the boot is allowed to do from U11, plus the U11 rule that looks wrong.
- Match day. The Half Game Rule, rolling subs plus what to do about uneven squads.
- The referee. Who referees, what they can give plus why there is no sin bin.
- Safety and welfare. Head knocks, mouthguards, hard ground plus mixed rugby.
Every topic in one place is the way in. The app searches the answers themselves, which is what you want when you know what you saw rather than what it is called.