Restart shootout

This small-sided game is ideal to work on players kick chase and keeping the ball alive in attack. You can use this as a standalone skills game or have it as a platform to launch a bigger game of touch and pass from. Thanks to Simon Parsons, Women and Girls Director of Rugby for Tunbridge Wells RFC and Kent U15s Girls Head Coach for this activity.

1. Use the 10m and halfway lines on your pitch as markings, the 22m is the dead ball line.
2. Make the grid narrow or wide to suit the numbers and players abilities.
3. Team A with the ball starts on the halfway line.
4. Team B starts between the 10m and 22m.

1. Team A kick the ball towards B. The ball must travel to at least the 10m line.
2. Team B aim to get the ball to the halfway line with the least amount of touch tackles.
3. Then each team swaps over.
4. Whoever has the least amount of touches wins.

NOTES

The aim of this game is to get players to quickly move up the pitch in attack, using their teammates and working on their evasion skills. It develops the mindset of being confident and able to attack from anywhere, whilst getting defensive players to work on an effective kick chase.

TECHNIQUE

• Communication in defence.
• Defensive line.
• Identifying space in attack.
• Evasion skills.

DEVELOPMENTS

You can use this game as a platform to launch a game of touch for your session. Therefore it can have a number of touch adaptions including:

• Limit the number of touches allowed and play 5 rounds to see who wins.
• Place a “Golden Snitch” rule (from Quidditch): if one team pulls off a specific move or skill they win that round.
• If a player keeps running sideways, promote the “One Cross Rule”, if a player crosses more than one player, the team fail the round.
• Give the defenders a pool noodle each to extend their reach.

COMMENT

Simon Parsons: I started using it as a warm-up as a fun way to focus on game play, but I have also used it as 60 minute progression sessions where I have had the best player feedback, plus see more smiles and improvements than almost anything else I do, outside of serious game play. It’s simple, can be set up anywhere, easy to adapt and the players don’t realise they’re developing if you stagger the progression right.