Rugby club fines and the court session
· 7 min read
Rugby invented the court session and most other sports have borrowed it since. Done well it is the best night of the season. Done badly it is the reason clubs end up in a safeguarding meeting.
The short answer
Rugby club fines are traditionally issued at a court session, where an appointed judge hears charges against players and sets a forfeit or a fine for each one. The format works because the charges are theatrical and the punishments are small, and it goes wrong whenever the forfeits involve drinking, nudity or anything a player cannot refuse without consequence.
Forwards
| Offence | Suggested fine |
|---|---|
| Standing up in the scrum | £2 |
| Not binding | £1 |
| Throwing a lineout straight to the opposition | £2 |
| Throwing it not straight, twice in a row | £2 |
| Knocking on from the restart | £1 |
| Being pushed back over your own line | £2 |
| Attempting a drop goal as a prop | £3 |
| Attempting a grubber kick as a prop | £5 |
| Trying to run it from your own five metre line | £2 |
| Giving away a penalty at the breakdown twice in one half | £2 |
| Celebrating a pushover try you were nowhere near | £1 |
| Telling the backs how to defend | £1 |
Backs
| Offence | Suggested fine |
|---|---|
| Dropping a pass with the line open | £2 |
| Missing a kickable penalty | £2 |
| Missing a conversion in front of the posts | £3 |
| Kicking it dead from a good position | £2 |
| Running into your own forward | £1 |
| Going for the intercept and missing | £2 |
| Hospital pass to a teammate | £2 |
| Not passing all game | £2 |
| Clean laundry at full time | £2 |
| Complaining about the weather | £1 |
| Telling the forwards how to scrummage | £1 |
| Any back who claims they could play eight | £1 |
Clubhouse and travel
| Offence | Suggested fine |
|---|---|
| Late for the bus | £3 |
| Missing the bus entirely | £5 |
| Wrong colour socks | £1 |
| Forgetting your gumshield | £2 |
| Borrowing someone else's gumshield | £5 |
| Leaving your boots on the clubhouse carpet | £2 |
| Not shaking hands with the opposition | £5 |
| Not clapping the opposition off | £3 |
| Skipping the post match meal | £2 |
| Phone out during the captain's speech | £2 |
| Singing the wrong club song | £2 |
| Leaving before the opposition's bus | £2 |
How a court session is actually run
- Appoint a judge for the season, or elect one on the night. Give them something daft to wear.
- Charges are submitted in advance, in writing, by anybody.
- The accused gets to answer the charge. Briefly. That is where the laughs are.
- The judge sets the forfeit. The judge's decision is final and the judge is also chargeable.
- Keep it to thirty minutes. A court session that outlasts the food has gone wrong.
- Write the fines down as they are given, or half of them are forgotten by morning.
Where to draw the line, and why it matters
Court sessions get clubs into trouble in exactly three ways: forfeits that involve drinking, forfeits that involve removing clothes, and forfeits a player cannot decline without being treated as a problem. All three are initiation behaviour wearing a fines system as a disguise, and none of them is worth the risk to your club.
The test is simple. Would the forfeit still be funny if a parent, a sponsor or your county RFU rep was stood at the bar watching. If the answer is no, it is not a forfeit, and the fact that everyone did it in 1997 is not a defence.
A fine into the kitty is almost always funnier anyway, because the money comes back as a night out for everybody rather than as one person's bad evening.
Keeping a season of it straight
A court session produces thirty fines in half an hour and nobody can recall a single one by Tuesday. Fine Club is built for exactly that: the charges go in as they are read, the pot totals itself, and there is a built in Kangaroo Court so the squad can vote on an appeal between sessions. Free on iOS and Android.
Common questions
What is a rugby court session?
A post match or end of season gathering where an appointed judge hears charges against players from the season and hands out a forfeit or a fine for each one. Charges are submitted in advance, the accused gets a short defence, and the judge's decision is final.
What are common rugby club fines?
Missing the bus, forgetting your gumshield, dropping a pass with the line open, props attempting drop goals, and failing to shake hands with the opposition. Prices usually run from a pound to five pounds.
Are drinking forfeits allowed in a court session?
They should not be. Forfeits involving alcohol, removing clothing, or anything a player cannot refuse without consequence are initiation behaviour rather than fines, and they are what gets clubs into disciplinary trouble. A fine into the kitty achieves the same laugh with none of the risk.
Who should be the judge?
Someone respected enough that their decisions stick and secure enough to be charged themselves. A club captain or a long serving member usually works, and giving them a daft wig helps more than it sounds.
Run your fines in the app, not a notes app
Fine Club keeps your rulebook, the pot and the leaderboard in one place, so nobody has to chase a pound by hand. Free on iOS and Android.