Age Grade Updates
Age Grade Regulations for 2025/26
A small number of changes to Regulation 15 have been approved by the RFU Council. The attached document provides a summary of the things that have been updated.
The Regulation itself can be found on the Regulations pages here(opens in a new tab).
This, along with additional support information, is available on the About Age Grade Rugby page here(opens in a new tab).
AGE GRADE Regulation playing updates for 2025/26:
Eiu5oLBMMp-QVgLg-250501%20AG%20Regulation%20Playing%20Updates%20for%202025-26%20v1.pdf
Age Grade Summer Activity 2025
As the Age Grade season has finished, the Summer Activity Framework is now underway. This defines the only formats and amount of training and playing/fixtures that can take place at each age group month by month. The May & June activities are as attached in the table.
A reminder also that, to support World Cup activities, the number of fixtures/festivals in August has been increased to four and touring teams from other Unions are welcome throughout August this year, as well as during the playing season. Please note that the usual festivals and tours approvals will still apply.
Please see the Summer Activity webpage(opens in a new tab) for the full information with links to the specific formats for friendly fixtures/festivals and loads of support to share with coaches, teachers, parents and players.
Girls U18 Playing Calendar Update
Following feedback from stakeholders and additional detail about the Six Nations schedule in 2026, we have made some small updates to the Girls U18 Playing Calendar for 2025/26. With player welfare at the heart of the calendar, we believe this will ensure a better balance of load for U18 Girls playing in the performance level of the pathway, alongside their club and college/school activity, benefitting their teammates as well.
This also gives more stability in the PDG programme and therefore the players in relation to those also involved in Six Nations. The changes are as follows and included in the updated calendar here(opens in a new tab):
- England Regional date and PDG Playing Opp 1 have swapped. So England becomes w/c 3rd Nov and PDG becomes w/c 27th Oct. This PDG will be joint conditioned training sessions, not full matchplay, so the change removes a PDG game.
- PDG Playing Opp 2 pushes back a week to w/c 12th Jan – this would only clash with CB U18 which players can’t be in both. This allows an additional week after Christmas to get prepared for PDG matchplay.
- PDG Playing Opp 3 pushes back to w/c 16th Feb to spread the load of playing opportunities for a session. This also means we don’t clash a playing opp with an ACE week and it also gets another round of National Cup played before the PDG game.
Specific support and management will be given to PDG players, in particular through the March period for those still involved in club and college/school national competitions. They will be helped to balance their playing programme between all the environments they are involved in.