Essentially, once a team is 30 points ahead in their match they must remove a player, and then an additional player for each further 10 point margin; this means that with a team with a 40 point lead should have two players off the field and so on.

If the score starts swinging back, teams may add players back to the field in the same method as they were removed.

Cootamundra Junior Rugby Bears president Scott Sharman has welcomed the policy saying sportsmanship and fostering a love of rugby are more important at junior level that huge scores. 

“We go out there to win every time, we make no bones about that, but we don’t want a win at all costs mentality,” Sharman said. 

For a small town, Cootamundra often punches above its weight when it comes to results in junior rugby and the Bears have been on the inflicting side of some big scoreboard discrepancies, however teams have also been on the wrong end. 

Neither is an ideal situation when parents, coaches and the governing body are focussed on aspects on the sport other than winning. 

Sharman said losing by a huge margin consistently throughout a season can discourage kids from wanting to sign back up in the future. 

“We want great participation, we want exceptional teamwork and sportsmanship and we want respect for coaches and the opposition; winning the competition is further down the track,” he said. 

Sharman said a lack of numbers resulted in the Bears under 13s losing many of their games last year.

This year, the same team, now under 14s, have amalgamated with Wyalong to become the Pirate Bears and are achieving greater success on the field.

He said he could see how a policy such as this latest one would have had a positive impact on how the kids viewed their season at the end of 2016 and their mindset entering the 2017 season. 

Junior rugby is now five rounds into an eight-round season before finals commence with a number of Cootamundra teams expected to make the finals.