Fair game time in junior rugby union: from the 10s to the full XV
The maths of a fair game, worked at four ages, the rotation patterns that work for every bench size, why half time is the moment to rotate, what to say to the parent who’s been counting, and how to make the whole thing run itself.
Junior rugby union hands every coach two jobs nobody mentions at sign-on.
The stopwatch. Rugby Australia’s junior laws (U6 to U12) allow unlimited player movements, so how the minutes are shared is your call. With 15 players at a U11 game, 12 on the field and two 20-minute halves, a fair game is 32 minutes each. Ask any coach what their actual spread was last week and nobody knows. Plenty of parents think they do.
The memory. Every stoppage is a chance to make a change, and every change is one more thing to carry: who’s been on, who’s waited, who’s next, and who can cover the front row. You hold all of that while also running the team talk and watching the breakdown.
This guide is the system for both. Every table in it is arithmetic you can check yourself.
In junior union the team grows from 7 at U8 to the full XV at U12, and most coaches still run the bench from memory. Nobody on the sideline actually knows what each kid played, and plenty of them are counting.
1 The maths of a fair game
The player-minutes are fixed: a U11 game is 2 × 20 = 40 minutes × 12 on the field = 480 player-minutes, however many turn up.
fair share = (game minutes × players on the field) ÷ players who turned up
| U11 players at the game | 2 × 15 min (360) | 2 × 20 min (480) | 2 × 25 min (600) | Bench at any moment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | ~28 min | ~37 min | ~46 min | 1 |
| 14 | ~26 min | ~34 min | ~43 min | 2 |
| 15 | 24 min | 32 min | 40 min | 3 |
| 16 | ~23 min | 30 min | ~38 min | 4 |
| 17 | ~21 min | ~28 min | ~35 min | 5 |
| 18 | 20 min | ~27 min | ~33 min | 6 |
| Age | On the field | Halves | Players | Fair share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U8 | 7 | 2 × 15 | 10 | 210 ÷ 10 = 21 min |
| U9 | 10 | 2 × 20 | 13 | 400 ÷ 13 = ~31 min |
| U11 | 12 | 2 × 20 | 15 | 480 ÷ 15 = 32 min |
| U12 | 15 | 2 × 25 | 18 | 750 ÷ 18 = ~42 min |
Two things to take from the table
Fair doesn’t mean equal to the minute. Change three every 5 minutes and the same 15 split 30 and 35: eight blocks give 24 seats on the bench, so nine players sit twice and six once. That’s a well-run bench. Without a system it’s the quiet winger on 20 while the big tackler plays all 40.
The bench size shapes your rhythm. A bench of one sits about 3 minutes each. A bench of six sits about 13. Section 3 has every size in between.
2 Why memory fails
Nobody sets out to give a kid 20 minutes of a 40-minute game. It happens through three drifts every coach will recognise.
Close-game drift. Five points in it, ten minutes to go, and your two biggest tacklers somehow haven’t come off since half time. Multiply by a season and the gap is enormous, and it’s invisible, because you never decided it. It drifted.
Quiet-kid drift. The winger who never touches the ball never asks for anything either, so she’s the one who gets forgotten, out wide or on the bench. The kid who asks at every stoppage gets the change.
Game-day chaos. A player who can’t continue, a scrum on your own line just as a change is due, the oranges and the team talk at half time. The plan in your head doesn’t survive game day.
Underneath all three: half time lies to you
Half time is when a union coach changes the most players, and it feels like a fresh start. But the huddle resets the lineup, not the minutes: the first half comes with them into the second. A kid who sat ten minutes of the first half is still on 10 minutes played, however fresh the restart looks. Kickd carries every player’s minutes across the break, and the rotation clock knows whether anyone changed in the huddle (section 4).
3 Rotation patterns that work
One rule beats every clever pattern:
On a fixed rhythm, swap the longest-on players for the longest-off players.
Below, that rule at each bench size (U11, 2 × 20). The minutes are only a guide: set whatever rotation time suits your team. Rugby Australia’s Kids Pathway Laws list player movements in games as “Unlimited” from U6 to U12. From U13, check your competition’s rules: some cap movements from U15, and Kickd doesn’t count them.
| Bench | The pattern (a guide) | How it lands |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (13 players) | One off, one on, longest-on out. | Everyone sits about 3 minutes. |
| 2 (14) | Two off, two on, longest-on out. | Everyone sits about 6 minutes. |
| 3 (15) | Three off, three on, every 4 minutes. | 10 blocks × 3 seats = 30 sits, 2 each: everyone sits 8 and plays exactly 32, 16 a half. Half time lands on a change. |
| 4 (16) | Four off, four on, every 5 minutes. | 8 blocks × 4 seats = 32 sits, 2 each: everyone sits 10 and plays 30, 15 a half. |
| 5 (17) | Three off, three on (SUBS PER ROTATION on three), longest-on out. | Everyone sits about 12 and plays about 28. |
| 6 (18) | SUBS PER ROTATION on three: the bench turns over in two waves. | Everyone sits about 13 and plays about 27. |
Three habits that guarantee an unfair spread
“We’ll sort it out at half time.” By then the first half is gone, and the huddle is the busiest part of the day. That’s game-day chaos with a plan.
“She’s our best tackler, she stays on.” There’s always a reason the game feels too close to change, so the bench waits. Close-game drift with a reason.
“He hasn’t asked to come on.” The quiet ones never ask. Quiet-kid drift with an excuse.
The front row rotates with the front row
World Rugby’s Laws of the Game are plain about the front row (Law 3): “It is a team’s responsibility to ensure that all front-row players and front-row replacements are suitably trained and experienced.” Junior rules vary, so check yours. Where scrums are contested, swap a front-rower for a front-rower. Tag your trained props and hookers Front Row on the TEAM tab (chips Front Row, Back Five, Backs). Kickd pairs each change within its pool where it can and never skips a player for it; when it can’t, the change goes ahead with an amber warning on the chip. It doesn’t know who is trained: that’s your call. Pools and position labels start at U9; U6 to U8 play numbered slots.
4 Game day, and the parent who’s been counting
Take the U11 team from section 1 on a 4-minute rotation. The changes at 4, 8 and 12 went to plan; the 16:00 alarm came with a scrum on your own line, so you let it ride. At half time three players have played all 20 minutes, the three on the bench (off since 12:00) are on 12, and everyone else is on 16. The break card lines up three swaps, longest-on for longest-off, each going into the spot being vacated, front row for front row where the tags allow, and says ROTATION DUE. One tap rotates all three.
How the alarm handles half time. The alarm counts game minutes from the last rotation, not from the start of the half. If a rotation was due at the whistle, the card says ROTATION DUE and the next alarm comes a full interval into the second half whether you rotate or not. If it wasn’t due, it says NEXT ROTATION: change players and the clock starts again from the restart, change nobody and the alarm picks up in the second half where it left off.
The second version isn’t just easier. It’s the version that keeps a parent onside for the whole season, because the answer is a number, not an opinion.
5 The season view
A single game will never be perfectly even. Kids arrive late, someone’s unavailable, a half gets away from you. What matters is the season.
Kickd scores every junior match (U6 to U12) with a Fairness %: the least-used player’s minutes as a percentage of the most-used player’s. Players who genuinely couldn’t take the field that day are excluded, so a short-handed week doesn’t poison the number. The Stats tab shows the season average and a bar for every game, so one messy game visibly washes out, and a trend of messy games visibly doesn’t.
Two ways coaches actually use it
Proactively, in the team chat. “Fairness this week: 90%.” One line, posted before anyone asks, and the counting-parent problem largely stops existing.
As the season’s honesty check. If the chart dips three weeks running, that’s close-game drift showing up in the data before it shows up as a phone call.
6 What this takes on game day
Everything above runs off one habit: tap each change as it happens, the player coming off, then the player going on. The app does the rest, live:
- Fair-share lineup before kick-off. From U9, auto-fill builds the starting side from who’s there: fewest season minutes on first, tagged players into their pools.
- Rotation alarm at whatever time you set, the swaps already worked out: longest-on off, longest-off on. SUBS PER ROTATION caps how many change at once. Rotate Now makes the changes shown; Dismiss it when you don’t want one. At half time the card lines up the rotation and says whether it’s due.
- Live minutes on every player, on the field and on the bench, with anyone well ahead of the rest flagged amber.
- Scoring in a few taps, or out loud. Tap + SCORE, pick Try (Conversion from U8, Penalty Goal and Drop Goal from U13), tap the scorer. Or say “try seven”. From U13 every conversion asks GOAL or MISSED against the kicker. The Undo bar above the field names the last thing logged and takes it back.
- A player who can’t continue is a long-press and one confirm. They’re marked unavailable; from U9 their spot opens for a bench player.
- Fairness % on the match record and the season chart, for junior teams (U6 to U12). Match history, season minutes and the Players’ Player leaderboard build themselves.
- Players’ Player, run for you. For an hour after full time each junior family votes on their child’s behalf in the app, and you pick Player of the Match. No group chat poll.
- Parents follow along on their own phones. Live score and clock at every age, scorers and any stats you log from U13. Your own lock screen carries a countdown for each half.
Already keeping the minutes on the back of the scoresheet? This is the same job, done while the game is on. No second volunteer, no memory, one phone.
Run it on your team at your next game
Kickd is built for rugby union, U6 to Opens. Rotation alarms and live minutes are on for every team out of the box, and every junior match (U6 to U12) is scored with a Fairness %. From U13 you get every player’s minutes without the Fairness %, and every conversion asks GOAL or MISSED, Team Pass included, so each kicker’s season builds itself. From U15, check your competition’s movement cap before you lean on the alarm. No hardware, nothing to charge. Coaches hold the pass; parents join free with a code.
- Set up your team in ten minutes: players, age group, done.
- Run the built-in Practice Game once on the couch. No real data, no pressure.
- Run your next real game with it and, for a junior team, post your Fairness % in the team chat.
Your first three matches are free, no card needed. After that, a Team Pass covers everything in this guide for the whole team, for the season. Coaching a U13+ side? Team Stats adds the full stat set on top: carries, try assists, line breaks, kicks, tackles, missed tackles, turnovers won, errors and penalties conceded, per player, all season. Both include Kickd Callout: say “rotate now” or “try seven” and it’s logged. Try it on your phone mic at training; on game day a Bluetooth headset with a boom mic keeps it hands free.
The Rugby Union Game Day Playbook is the designed, printable version of this guide. Pricing is on the pricing page.