Player Passport · Rugby Union
In a collision sport, a coach who doesn't know the player, is a welfare risk. Player Passport gives every player a voice, gives welfare the control, and gives coaches the practical guidance they need before the first session — not after the first problem.
A problem community rugby clubs know well
Community rugby already takes welfare seriously. Player Passport helps that care survive the handover, the age-group move, the coach change, and the first session where the player needs adults to understand them.
Every summer, players move up an age group. A new coach, sometimes a new team, sometimes a new training ground. Whatever the previous coach knew rarely gets passed on in any structured way — if it was ever written down at all. In rugby, where physical contact is part of every session, that gap matters. The club's care should not disappear when the coach changes.
Rugby union is a collision sport. Parents know things about their child's relationship with contact, physicality, noise and unexpected pressure that their child may never say to a coach. There is no structured route for that information to reach the people who need it. Player Passport gives it a controlled route before the session becomes difficult.
Community rugby coaches know the rules. Almost none have a practical framework for understanding individual support preferences. Player Passport helps them understand the player, without adding significant work to anyone's week.
How Player Passport works
Simple enough for a volunteer welfare officer to run. Specific enough for rugby coaches to use before contact work, team selection, training and match day.
Parents and carers get a guided form for youth players. Adult players complete their own support profile. The form asks the things coaches actually need to know: communication preferences, sensory sensitivities in a contact environment, what helps, what doesn't. Warm, practical, not clinical.
Nothing goes to coaches automatically. Your welfare officer or safeguarding lead reviews everything first and approves what belongs in the coach-facing snapshot. Sensitive detail stays welfare-controlled.
Not a safeguarding report. Not a diagnosis. Just the support guidance a coach can read in two minutes before a session — how to communicate with this player, what to watch for in a contact environment, what helps, what to avoid.
Coach-safe means coach-useful
The snapshot gives coaches exactly what they need in the moment. Nothing more, nothing less. Sensitive medical detail, diagnosis information, and full family context stay behind the welfare review wall.
Short, direct sentences. Address him by name first. Avoid rhetorical questions. Allow 15–20 seconds before expecting a response.
Consistent warm-up structure. Tell him about position or role changes before the session — not at the last minute. Praise privately, not in front of the group.
What parents and players actually experience
Parents and carers get a link from you for youth players. Adult players complete their own support profile. No app to download, no account to create. The form takes about ten minutes, and it asks things like how the player communicates best, what they find difficult in a contact environment, and what tends to help when they're struggling.
Nothing goes anywhere without welfare review. Support sharing is permission-led, coach visibility is controlled, and safeguarding concerns still follow your club's existing safeguarding process.
One message. Works by text, email, or WhatsApp. Parents, carers or adult players click and go.
Guided questions about communication, confidence, sensory needs, contact concerns and support preferences.
Nothing reaches coaches automatically. You decide what's coach-visible. Sensitive detail stays with you.
Practical, specific, ready before training. No backstory. Just what they need.
Three people, one system
You control what coaches see. Submissions sit in your review queue first. You approve what's coach-visible, flag what stays restricted, and manage the review schedule through the season — including every age-group transition. No more hoping the outgoing coach remembered to pass something on. You can also add a private Development Context note to any player's full passport — a welfare-only record of where a player is on their development pathway, what the plan is, and who owns the next review. It never reaches coaches.
Parents know their child's relationship with contact, noise and pressure in ways no coach can observe in a session. Adult players know what helps them feel confident, safe and ready. Player Passport gives that information a proper route, without sending sensitive detail carelessly around the club.
You don't need the full history. You need to know how to communicate with the player in front of you, what to watch for when contact drills start, and what to do if something goes wrong. The snapshot gives you that. Nothing else gets in the way.
For every club coaching girls and women
Across community rugby, there are coaches running girls' age-grade teams and women's rugby squads who have never been given a structured way to understand what their players need. Around confidence, privacy, body image, changing facilities, menstrual wellbeing, social dynamics, or the specific ways girls mask difficulty rather than show it.
That's not a failure of coaching. It's a gap in what clubs have ever given them.
Player Passport includes a Female Player Wellbeing layer — an optional module that clubs can switch on for girls' and women's teams. Parents and players share what's relevant. Welfare controls what coaches see. Coaches get a clear, practical support card — not a medical file, not a guessing game. Just the specific things that help this player feel confident, safe and able to stay involved.
For welfare officers, club chairs and committee members watching their girls' section grow: this is the infrastructure that makes that growth sustainable.
Not another club admin tool
None of those tools tell a coach how to support the player in front of them. That's the gap. Player Passport exists entirely in that gap.
Questions committees ask
Is this only for players with a diagnosis?
No. Any player who might benefit from coaches understanding them better can have a Player Passport. A diagnosis is never required. The question is always: what does this player need from the adults around them in a rugby environment?
Do coaches see everything people write?
No. Everything goes through the welfare officer or safeguarding lead first. Medical information, diagnosis, family context, or anything the family or adult player wants kept controlled stays restricted. Coaches see the support guidance, not the full confidential record.
We already collect medical information at registration.
Most clubs collect it. Rarely does it reach coaches in a usable form. Player Passport is not another data collection exercise. It turns what parents, carers and adult players share into the practical guidance coaches actually need before a session starts.
Will our volunteer coaches actually use it?
The welfare lead sends a link. Parents, carers or adult players fill in a form. Coaches get a snapshot. Nobody needs training to use it. It's designed for a club run by volunteers with not enough time — because that's every community rugby club.
Does this replace our safeguarding or concussion protocols?
No. Player Passport is for player support information. Concussion protocols and return-to-play procedures follow RFU and World Rugby guidance. Those processes sit entirely outside Player Passport. Safeguarding concerns follow your normal procedure. These are different things and we keep them separate.
Is the pricing really that simple?
Yes. £9/month for clubs up to 250 players. £19/month above that. Or pay annually and save. That's it. No per-user fees. No hidden unlocks. Priced so a welfare officer can take it to committee and get a yes in one meeting.
Can PP be used for players at different development levels?
Yes — and this is one of the strongest arguments for putting the whole squad on it. Every club has players operating at different levels. PP works for all of them. Welfare officers can add a private Development Context note to any player's full passport — recording where they are, what the plan is, and who owns the next review. It never appears in the coach snapshot. It stays with welfare, and it stays when volunteers change.
Grassroots-first pricing
Priced so welfare officers don't have to fight for it. One flat fee, all players, no hidden costs.
Club
Up to 250 registered players
or £90/year — save two months
Club Plus
251 or more registered players
or £190/year — save two months
Get Player Passport for your rugby club
Fill in your details and we'll come back to you with everything you need to get started — including how to run your first parent and player intake campaign.
Tell us about your club and we'll be in touch.
We'll be in touch within one working day — usually the same afternoon. Thanks for getting in touch.