The Rugby Football Union is demanding that from next season all children included in a match-day squad must play at least half a game.

The RFU is attempting to stem the flow of 10,000 young players being lost from the game every year. The half-game rule, which had been in place as a discretionary measure this season, will become regulation from next season.

It means that all age-grade players, from six to 18, will be guaranteed to play at least half a game.

The initiative was piloted in New Zealand and has since been adopted by the Welsh Rugby Union as well as the RFU.

Research conducted by the University of Essex shows that players who play half a game are six times more likely to enjoy rugby than if they languish on the bench. Yet Steve Grainger, the RFU’s rugby development director, accepts that the measure will prove to be controversial with the win-at-all-costs attitude adopted by some school coaches.

He is prepared for accusations of pandering to “snowflakes”. “I know the negativity that will come,” Grainger told The Daily Telegraph. “They will say, ‘Steve is a really bad player, I just won’t pick him so I’ll have 19 players rather than 20’. Quite frankly, they shouldn’t be coaching rugby.