Junior law review and pilot law changes

Rugby Australia with support from its Member Unions is currently reviewing junior rugby laws to deliver better, safer and more age-appropriate experiences for players aged 8 to 15 years across Australia.

For all the details, explanations, and a place to provide feedback see Junior Law Review | Rugby Australia.

The most notable change is giving attacking teams breathing space to use the ball at set piece: no movement until ball is passed out. See the documents for details.

Summaries for each age group are:

• Under 8
• Under 9
• Under 10
• Under 11
• Under 12

Welcome to season 2026

   

Its time to start thinking rugby:

• Registration - go to https://myaccount.rugby.com.au, sign in, go to Register, search for Victorian Referees, click all the buttons.
• Accreditation - Complete Smart Rugby. and if you did not attend the annual update at Quins last week, also complete Season Ready in Rugby Xplorer's Learning Center.
• Unavailability - Enter your unavailability in Rugby Xplorer, if you are registered, and accredited, you can be appointed to games. If your unavailable at any time, you need to indicate that in Rugby Xplorer so that your name doesn't appear as available to appointment.

Monthly education - National community webinars

 

This year your monthly education comes to you directly from Rugby Australia. If you haven't already done so, go into the Learning Centre and sign up for the next four sessions to get reminders.

Session 1 has already happened; you can watch the recording. Session 2 is this week:

- Tuesday, March 11th: Game Setup & Interactions - Damon Murphy & Jess Ling
- Tuesday, April 8th: Assistant Refereeing/To3 - Reuben Keane & Tyler Miller
- Tuesday, May 13th: Contextual Refereeing - Angus Gardner
- Tuesday, June 10th: Refereeing the Set Piece - Jordan Way & Sarah Porter
- Tuesday, July 8th: Dealing with Pressure/High Impact Decisions - Nic Berry & Ella Goldsmith

To watch recordings, sign into Rugby Xplorer and click the link at the end of this post (it will take you to directly to the page). Else from the Rugby Xplorer menu click Learning Center > Resource Library > NATIONAL COMMUNITY MATCH OFFICIAL WEBINARS

Learning Center Resource Library - National Community Match Official Webinars