Under 10's Final

[Nailsworthstiger]

Reading one of the 5 main pages earlier on the LT Home page, the report said that Bury St Edmunds in scoring a try, beat Melbourne 1-0.

Can anyone explain why a try is only worth 1 point for the youngsters, or was it a mis-print?

From a cynical point could it be that loosing 5-0 for youngsters is too demoralising?

[MJ Chairman]

I think because in mini rugby at under 10s there are no conversions so a try is the only way to score, and a score in singles is easier.

[AidanMcDowell]

MJ Chairman got it right. It's scores that count so they are counted in singles. There are no conversions or penalties. This applies all the way up to Under 12s in club rugby (although, perplexingly, the same age group in school rugby have conversions and accrue points in the normal way, at least in my neck of the woods.)

[MJ Chairman]

I'm fairly sure in Leicestershire @ u12s they play across half a pitch and conversions of tries are taken in front of that halfs posts.

My lot are unruly 15s now so my memory is fading.

[Norfolk & Goode]

For the under 10's the laws state it is 5pts for a try, but they don't take conversions so it doesn't make any difference.

FYI - under 11's and under 12's play on a larger pitch than the under 10's (they also have more players: 13 for u12's, 12 for u11's as opposed to only 9 for u10's) which has posts for the purpose of conversions so therefore can score the conventional way. All conversions are taken in front of the posts regardless of where the grounding is. No penalty conversions are allowed, nor drop goals unless used when converting a try. Where clubs don't have a dedicated pitch, they generally play across the pitch with the 22 as one touch, and the try line the other, then both teams use the same posts for conversions.

[AidanMcDowell]

I guess there must be regional variations. The London and Kent authorities (for club rugby, on Sundays) do not have any conversions up to and including U12 and trys are counted individually. The games are also played on smaller pitches (often across the width of a normal pitch) and last 10 minutes each way. My 11 year old son, used to this format, was a bit thrown when starting at fly half for his school and found they played 25 minutes each way, on a full sized pitch, and were required to kick conversions. His main problem was his usual reliable kicking from hand no longer got anywhere near touch. It was, though, quite amusing to see the speedsters breaking into space and discovering they simply ran out of puff before they were even in sight of the try line!

[RWA]

Interested in people's views on this.....our Junior side are due to play the Gloucestershire County Cup quarter final on Sunday (I won't name the teams or age group), but the away side (the opposition) have asked to move the game as they have 6 players out playing in another tournament. They've asked to play the following week, we can't as it's Mothers Day and we don't ever play on that day. The local RFU have said that we have to play 2 weeks later. All the other quarter finals are taking place this Sunday and it has been in the calendar since September last year. We are also at home so you would think that we have some say in whether the game is played or not....what do you think ?

[MJ Chairman]

I would look at an appeal to the local rugby union. Depends on what the 6 players from the opposition are playing in. If it is county or EPDG related then allowances are usually made.
Gloucester obviously run much later than Leicester, as their junior finals day is March 18th.

[tigerlilly]

March 18th is Mother's Day, that is really poor planning for Junior Finals to take place then!

[jgriffin]

It might be worth noting the county status of the side and the officials, as in my (now old hat) experience, the connected ones used this sort of jiggery-pokery and you found that their blazer-chums were the ones you appealed to.
This was once done to my eldest's U14 side, and on the day we're ordered to play on the only pitch that WAS a mudpatch, also smaller size and narrow - helped to nullify our width and speed. Won by a whisker 6-3.

[MJ Chairman]

We played a cup quarter final earlier this season only to arrive at the opposition ground and discover that the game had been moved to their 3rd team pitch which happened to be 15 yards narrower than their main pitch. They did have a valid reason as to why, but was obviously to stop our outside backs.

We just boshed them up the middle instead.

[RWA]

Thanks for the replies and comments....update

...The GRFU have decided that the game should be played on Sunday 25th March. If we decide we can't (or won't) play this game then the quarter-final will be awarded to the opposition and we will be "knocked out". Not confirmed but the rumour is that the players will be missing due to a football tournament !!?

Of note, should we make the semi-final, that date has also been moved to accommodate the 1/4 final (!) - on that date (again, should we get there) our coach will be running the London Marathon (so absent) and our captain has a pre-arranged engagement, based on working around the originally promulgated dates !!

Arrrrggghhhhhhhh !