Competitions are an important part of rugby development and allow rugby participants to showcase their skills, compete against other clubs, and enhance their rugby knowledge and understanding. Before competition begins, it is important to know the regulations, game variations, and proper processes for your level of rugby.
Competition Age Grade Regulations
Match Official Assignment Process
Match Officials are an integral part of Competition within Ontario. In order for Contact league matches to kick-off, a registered and certified Match Official must be present. Referee Appointers work hard throughout the competition season to assign appropriately registered and certified Match Officials to all competitions before game days. These assignments can be viewed at the link below.
If your game does not have a Match Official assigned to it within 48 hours of the match starting, the two competing teams are asked to arrange an available registered and certified Match Official for the game. If your club is able to find a registered and certified Match Official, kindly let Rugby Ontario, and your league’s Match Official Appointer, know via email (competitions@rugbyontario.com) as soon as possible.
2026 Match Official Appointer Directory
Match Sanctioning
All rugby matches in Ontario, including exhibition matches, inbound provincial tours, and matches against non-Rugby Canada members, require sanctioning before the match begins. Match requests must be submitted to Rugby Ontario Competitions well in advance of games to ensure adequate time is provided to administer the request. Any Exhibition match in conflict with a scheduled Rugby Ontario Competition fixture will not be approved.
PlayHQ Competition Administration Resources
Please view the following videos regarding setting up your team lists (formerly known as panels) and your match rosters. Please note that due to system functionality, any athlete can be added to a team list regardless of gender/age. Just because an athlete is able to be added to a team list, does not make them eligible for competition or to be added to the match roster.
Team Lists are a resource that clubs can use to compile all eligible athletes for competition. For example, you can create a Senior Women’s team list of all registered senior women in your club; this will make roster administration easier, as you have a filtered list of players to pull from.
A match day roster is the list of athletes participating in a scheduled league match. Match day rosters are required to be submitted no later than 24 hours in advance of competition. Please review all competition regulations to determine your competition’s minimum and maximum roster sizes.
PlayHQ has functionality for coaches to create rosters through their personal profile or the Rugby Canada app once they have been added as a coach to the specific team list. Please view the resources below that outline how coaches can set lineups using the webpage or Rugby Canada App. Should your coach not be accessible to be added, please reach out to Rugby Ontario Competitions (competitions@rugbyontario.com) for further instructions.
Should you encounter any further administration questions, please review the PlayHQ support site below, which includes helpful administration guides, or reach out to Rugby Ontario Competitions.