Give us a hand
at the club
Every team at this club is run by volunteers, and none of them started out knowing how. Here is exactly what it takes, what it costs, and how long it really is.
Two clearances, both free,
and you can start today
Free. The club sends the form, the Bureau does the rest.
Free online through the IRFU, or a €20 evening on Zoom.
€90, and not needed to start — plenty help before they do one.
Nobody is left to work this out alone. Talk to Carmel Daly, the club welfare officer, on +353 (0) 85 158 8838. That call is the whole first step.
The best hour of the week,
and you are already there
You are at the pitch anyway
Most coaches here started by standing at the fence for a season waiting for their own child. The hour passes very differently when you are in it.
Your own child sees you at it
They watch what you do far more closely than what you say. A parent who turns up for other people’s children as well is the whole lesson.
You will not be on your own
Every squad runs two, three or four coaches deep, with a rota, a plan for each session and somebody senior to ask. Nobody is handed a team and a whistle.
You learn the game properly
The courses are good, they are mostly free, and you end up understanding an international on television in a way you did not before.
And the plain truth: every team at this club exists because a few parents said yes. A squad without enough coaches trains less often, travels less and eventually folds into another age group. That is the whole argument.
Garda vetting
Garda vetting for rugby is done through the IRFU, which is the registered organisation. You cannot apply to the Garda Vetting Bureau yourself, and vetting you hold through work, another club or another sport does not carry over — it has to be done again through the club. Most of it you do yourself on RugbyConnect; the club only validates your ID.
- 01Fill in the NVB1 form — on paper, in pen
This comes first, before anything online. Block capitals, one letter per box, and the signature has to be wet ink on paper — a typed or digital signature is refused, and so is a photocopy. It asks for your current address only, not every address you have lived at, and it does not ask for your PPS number. Fill it in below and print it.
You · 10 minutes
Fill in the NVB1 form → - 02Under 18? Add the NVB3 as well
A parent or guardian fills in the NVB3 consent form and signs it in pen too. The email address on it must match the one on your NVB1, and for anyone under 18 that address should be the parent or guardian’s, because the Vetting Bureau writes to them rather than to you. This is about the age of the person being vetted, not the players: an adult coaching the minis does not need one.
You · 5 minutes
Fill in the NVB3 form → - 03Make sure you hold a Coach membership on RugbyConnect
RugbyConnect — you may know it as SportLomo — is where the application lives, and it will not offer you a vetting credential without a current Coach membership. If you registered as a player, open your membership card and use Upgrade / Add Category to add the coach role rather than signing up a second time.
You · 10 minutes
RugbyConnectOpens rugbyconnect.irfu.ie - 04Create the vetting credential yourself
Log in, open your own membership card — not a child’s — then Credentials, then Upload Credential. Fill in two fields and no more: Type is Vetting, and Credential Name is “IRFU Vetting for Regular Work with Young People”. Leave Provider, Provider Identifier and Additional Info empty — the IRFU guide says in so many words that all other fields should be left blank. Start Date and Expiry Date fill themselves in; if they do not, put today’s date in Start Date. Either way the IRFU sets the real dates once it is approved. Then press Save and it takes you to the survey.
You · 5 minutes
Log in to RugbyConnectOpens irfu.sportsmanager.ie - 05Work through the survey
Saving the credential opens a survey. It starts with the Declaration of Intent and the Code of Conduct for Coaches, which you are agreeing to abide by, then a self-declaration — if there is a statement you cannot agree to, talk to the Children’s Officer before going on rather than stopping. Choose An Garda Síochána NVB (Club Address in Ireland). Every detail must match your NVB1 exactly or you will be sent back to edit it.
You · 15 minutes
- 06Upload two forms of ID
One photo ID showing your date of birth, and one proof of address dated within the last six months. The name and address on them have to match the NVB1 exactly. Everything you upload has to come to under 2.8MB in total, which is the thing that catches people — photograph them small or scan at a lower quality. Under 18s upload the NVB3 here too.
You · 10 minutes
- 07Meet the Children’s Officer with the originals
Bring the printed NVB1, signed, and the original documents you uploaded. They check the ID against the form and complete the Identity Document Validation Form on the back of it. This has to be in person — it is the one part that cannot be done online.
The club · One meeting
- 08Answer the Garda email within 28 days
The National Vetting Bureau emails you from evetting.donotreply@garda.ie with a link to the e-vetting site. You have 28 days to respond and the application lapses if you do not. It very often lands in spam, so look there before you assume it has not come.
You · Within 28 days
- 09The Bureau processes it and the club records the date
This is the long part and it is out of everyone’s hands — slower in August and September when every club in the country applies at once. The disclosure goes back to the IRFU and the club rather than to you, and the club confirms you are cleared. Put the expiry date in below so the app can warn you before it lapses.
IRFU / Vetting Bureau · Commonly several weeks
Keeping it: Lasts three years, in line with the IRFU Vetting Policy. Start the renewal about three months before it runs out.
Safeguarding 1
Sport Ireland’s Safeguarding 1 — Child Safeguarding Basic Awareness. Every coach, and anyone else with regular access to children at the club, needs it. It is separate from vetting: having one does not cover the other.
- 01Take the IRFU’s course — free, online, no date to wait for
The IRFU runs its own Safeguarding 1 for Leinster as an online module on the Education Store, and it costs nothing. There is no sitting to book and no evening to keep free, which makes it the quickest way to be cleared. Enrol in your own name.
You · Start it today
IRFU Safeguarding (SG1) 26/27, LeinsterOpens educationstore.irfu.ie - 02Or sit the Sport Ireland workshop instead
Westmeath Sports Partnership run Safeguarding 1 as a three-hour evening workshop on Zoom, usually 6:30 to 9:30, at about €20. Dates come and go, so the training page is the list rather than anything printed here. Either route satisfies the same requirement.
You · One evening, booked ahead
Westmeath Sports Partnership — safeguarding datesOpens westmeathsports.ie - 03Do it in one sitting
The workshop is about three hours and the online module a little less. Completing it is the whole requirement — there is no exam.
You · Up to 3 hours
- 04Already done one elsewhere? Have it recognised
A safeguarding certificate from another sport or from work can count. Upload it to SportLomo under External Safeguarding and the IRFU will review it, rather than sitting the course a second time.
IRFU / Vetting Bureau · Allow a week
SportLomoOpens reg.sportlomo.com - 05Send the certificate to the club
You get a certificate with the date on it. Send a copy to the Children’s Officer and put the expiry date below.
You · Minutes
Keeping it: Lasts three years for an IRFU minis or youths coach. Book the refresher before it runs out, not after — and note the online refresher can only be taken once, so a lapse means the full course again.
Learning to coach
Not needed to start — plenty of people help for a season first. When you want it, the IRFU runs two, and which one depends on the age you are with.
At Shay Murtagh Park this season: Children’s Coach Course, 17 October 2026. Youth Coach Award, 24 October 2026. No travel and no overnight.
Children’s Coach Course
The mini rugby course: the small-sided game, how to run a session, and the Core 4 the club’s own handbooks are built on.
Players aged 5 to 12 · €90
Youth Coach Award
The introduction to the fifteen-a-side game: scrum, lineout and the contact area, for coaches taking a side into league and cup rugby.
Players aged 12 and over · €90
- 24 October 2026Mullingar RFCHereBook
- You must be 16 or over to take either course.
- A coach aged 16 or 17 works as an Assistant Coach, under the direct supervision of an accredited coach aged 18 or over.
- Where a course is oversubscribed, priority goes to people already coaching.
Dates are the IRFU’s, checked against the IRFU Education Store on 5 September 2026. Every Book link above opens educationstore.irfu.ie, where the listing is live — courses fill up and dates move.
Say you are interested
You do not need any of the above before you turn up. Come down to a session, see whether it suits you, and the club will start the paperwork when you know it does.