The referee, the questions that come up
Who referees, what they can give plus why there is no sin bin.
Every grade
Free to read with no account. They work at a pitch with no signal too.
The answers
Is there a sin bin in minis rugby?
No, at any grade. The referee has a word with the coaches on the touchline and the sides stay even. Nobody gets sent off a minis pitch for something that would be ten minutes in the adult game.
Can I go onto the pitch during play?
No. Coaches stay off while the ball is in play at every minis grade. The referee is expected to talk the players through it instead, which is a different job to the one they do in the adult game and takes some getting used to on both sides.
Who referees a minis game?
Usually a coach or a club volunteer rather than a society referee. Your club will tell you what they want you to have done before you pick up a whistle, since that varies by club and by county. Expect to be doing it at some point if you're running an age group.
The referee gave a decision I am sure was wrong. What now?
They're right and you get on with it. That's not a platitude: at minis the referee is usually another parent doing you a favour. A coach arguing on the touchline is the reason clubs struggle to find anybody to do it next season. Ask them afterwards if you genuinely want to know.
What can the referee actually give?
A free pass for almost everything, all the way up to U10. From U11 the serious offences become free kicks with opponents 7 metres back. There are no penalty kicks at goal anywhere in minis, so nothing a referee gives you can be turned into points directly.
Somebody on our touchline is out of order. Whose job is that?
Yours, before it's anybody else's. You're the adult the club put in charge of that age group and a word early is easier than a conversation later. Your club will have a code of conduct and a welfare officer, so use both rather than carrying it on your own.
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.
- Safety and welfare. Head knocks, mouthguards, hard ground plus mixed rugby.
- Running a session. How long, how many helpers plus what to do if you never played.
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.