Player's Guide to USA Rugby Senior Club Rugby Adult (18+) 2026-27

Under USA Club Rugby's 2026-27 Eligibility Regulations, moving clubs needs a clearance. You aren't eligible for organized, recognized or sanctioned competition with your new club until your home club and local union approve the clearance request.

Transfers in Rugby Xplorer take two steps:

1. Request to join the new club. You get an email once your home club and local union approve it.
2. Complete your registration with the new club in Rugby Xplorer. An approved request alone doesn't make you eligible.

Other points:

• If you've already played National Championship Series (NCS) qualifying matches for your old club this season, you also need a waiver from the Senior Club Eligibility Committee before playing qualifying matches for the new club.
• Once you play in a local union playoff match for a club, your NCS eligibility is locked to that club. Exceptions need documented extraordinary circumstances.
• If your old club or union is slow to approve, it's your job to chase them. A delay won't be accepted as a reason for late registration.
• Coming from overseas: if you arrive from another country's union after September 1 of the current membership season, including US players returning from abroad, you need an international clearance through your home union and USA Rugby (player-clearances@usa.rugby).

Eligibility questions go to eligibility@usaclub.rugby.

Under USA Club Rugby's 2026-27 Eligibility Regulations and USA Rugby policy, senior club rugby is for players normally 18 or older.

• Under 18: you may not take part in contact activities with an adult club (practices or games, in any code) without a USA Rugby waiver for exceptional players. The waiver is only available if you're at least 17.
• Under 19: if you're 17 or 18, you may not play front row without a waiver from USA Club Rugby.
• Losing youth eligibility: a player of any age who competes in adult rugby is no longer eligible for youth or high school rugby.
• Insurance: a youth or high school player who trains with a senior club, even just for non-contact training or social games, must register with senior club rugby. USA Rugby's youth/high school insurance doesn't cover adult rugby.
• Coaches who let an under-18 player take part in contact activities, or an under-19 player play front row, without the waiver can be sanctioned.

Send waiver requests to eligibility@usa.rugby.

It depends on your role. USA Club Rugby's 2026-27 regulations say:

• Coaches, referees, administrators and board members: must comply with the U.S. Center for SafeSport code and its policies and procedures.
• Players: must comply when USA Club Rugby notifies them that it is required.
• When an under-18 player joins your club: if a player under 18 takes part in contact or non-contact activities with your club, every member of the senior club must complete the SafeSport for Players module before USA Rugby approves that player's waiver.

USA Rugby offers its SafeSport modules free online at education.usarugby.org/safesport.

Senior club rugby is community rugby, which uses a lower tackle line than elite rugby.

• 2026 Laws of the Game (Law 14): tacklers must tackle below the high-tackle sanction line. In community rugby that line is the waist or the base of the sternum, whichever the union sets. In elite rugby it is the shoulder line. Breaking this law is a penalty, and a dangerous tackle can also be a yellow or red card.
• In the USA: USA Rugby adopted World Rugby's lower-tackle-height variation for community rugby from the 2024-25 membership year (September 1, 2024). It set the legal tackle height below the sternum. World Rugby made the lower community tackle height full law for seasons starting after July 1, 2026.
• Ball carriers also have a responsibility to enter the tackle safely.

World Rugby's research found that concussion risk is more than four times higher when the tackler's head is above the ball carrier's sternum.

These rules come from Law 9 of the 2026 Laws of the Game.

• Yellow card: you're cautioned and suspended for 10 minutes of playing time. If you commit a second yellow-card offense in the same match, you're sent off, and play restarts with a penalty.
• Red card: you're sent off and take no further part in the match. In community rugby, a player who is sent off can't be replaced, so your team plays a player short for the rest of the match. (The option to replace a red-carded player after 20 minutes is for elite rugby only.)
• If a front-rower is yellow- or red-carded and the team can't keep contesting scrums, the team must nominate another player to leave the field so a replacement front-rower can come on.
• After a red card, the referee sends the match organizer a written report on the foul play as soon as possible.

These rules come from Law 3 of the 2026 Laws of the Game.

• How many: in club matches, the match organizer (your league or union) decides how many replacements a team may name, up to a maximum of eight.
• When: replacements come on only when the ball is dead, and only with the referee's permission.
• Injured players: a player replaced because of injury can't come back on.
• Blood injuries: a bleeding player leaves the field and can be temporarily replaced. They can return once the bleeding is controlled or covered. If they aren't back within 15 minutes (actual time), the replacement becomes permanent.
• Tactically replaced players can come back on only to replace:
  • an injured front-rower
  • a player with a blood injury or a head injury
  • a player just injured by foul play, as confirmed by the match officials
  • a player who has to leave the field so a front-rower can come on after a front-rower is carded or there's no other front-row cover
• Rolling replacements: a match organizer may allow rolling interchanges at its level of the game, with no more than 12 interchanges. The organizer sets the details.

Laws of the Game (Law 3, 2026):

• Before the match, each team must tell the match official which players can play front row, and in which positions (loosehead, hooker, tighthead). When scrums are contested, only those players may play front row, and only in their listed positions.
• It's the team's responsibility to make sure every front-rower is suitably trained and experienced.
• Scrums become uncontested if a team can't field a suitably trained front row, or if the referee orders it. Uncontested scrums caused by a sending-off, a yellow card or an injury are still eight players per side.
• By default, a squad needs this many front-rowers. A match organizer can change these minimums for its competition.

USA Club Rugby age rule: players who are 17 or 18 (under 19) may not play front row in adult rugby without a waiver from USA Club Rugby. Coaches who allow it without a waiver can be sanctioned.

USA Rugby follows World Rugby Regulation 10 and the Recognize and Remove policy for community rugby.

• During the match: if you're concussed or might be, you must be removed immediately and permanently (Law 3.24). You can't return to that match, with no exceptions. The World Rugby Head Injury Assessment (HIA) process doesn't apply in USA Club Rugby domestic competitions, so you can't be assessed and sent back on.
• Before you play again: you must be evaluated by appropriate medical staff before returning to rugby in any form. Best practice is a physician trained in concussion management.
• Return to play: USA Club Rugby regulations require any player who is suspected of having or diagnosed with a concussion to complete World Rugby's Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) protocol. You must be fully recovered and symptom-free, and cleared in writing by a qualified healthcare professional trained in concussion.
• After you're cleared: teammates, coaches and medical staff should watch for lingering symptoms. If any come back, you must stop playing straight away.

World Rugby Law 4 (2026) sets the kit rules. All clothing must comply with World Rugby Regulation 12.

Required: jersey, shorts and underwear, socks and boots (cleats). Jersey sleeves must reach at least halfway from the shoulder point to the elbow.

Allowed:

• Mouthguard (World Rugby recommends every player wears one)
• Headgear and approved shoulder or chest pads
• Shin guards, elasticated supports, and ankle supports worn under socks (no higher than a third of the shin; not metal if rigid)
• Fingerless mitts, bandages and thin tape, goggles
• Cotton-blend tights or leggings under shorts and socks
• Headscarves or coverings, as long as they aren't a danger
• Player monitoring devices

Not allowed:

• Jewelry
• Gloves
• Anything sharp or abrasive
• Items with buckles, clips, rings, hinges, zippers, screws, bolts or rigid projections
• Shorts or leggings with padding sewn in
• Communication devices
• Any item contaminated by blood

The referee can order you to remove anything dangerous or illegal, and you can't play until it's removed. If you were told before the match to remove a banned item and are later found wearing it on the field, you are sent off. You can't leave the field to change clothing unless it is bloodstained.

USA Club Rugby's 2026-27 regulations say USA Rugby recommends applying World Rugby's Heat Illness Prevention Interventions during a match when conditions reach both of these:

• a temperature of 86°F or higher, and
• humidity of 60% or higher.

The interventions are published on World Rugby's player welfare site, playerwelfare.worldrugby.org.

USA Club Rugby's 2026-27 Eligibility Regulations say your club should keep player documents on file from the start of the season. You may have to show them on demand, or before a National Championship Series (NCS) qualifying match or event. You may need to prove:

• Identity: a current government-issued photo ID, or a school-issued ID for students.
• Citizenship or residency status: this decides whether you count as a Non-Resident or Non-Citizen player, and clubs are limited in how many of those they can roster. For Club Sevens citizenship, accepted proof includes:
  • a US passport or passport card (current or expired)
  • a government photo ID together with a US birth certificate
  • an Enhanced Driver's License
• Your USA Club Rugby registration and any waiver granted to you.
• College enrollment, where relevant.

Originals or legible copies are fine, on paper or on a phone, laptop or tablet. If you can't produce the right documents, you'll be ruled ineligible for qualifying matches or treated as a Non-Resident or Non-Citizen player.