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Organising your girls' U14 and U16 season (2026)
| To the first game | To half-term | To Christmas | To February half-term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 |
What Matters Most
The framework for your first season with U14/U16 girls. Building confidence means players start to own skills – and owning a skill is what makes them likely to actually use it in a game. Core skills (the ABCDs) matter because they create chances for success that are not always obvious to an outside observer, which is exactly what you need to build enjoyment.
- ›Avoid anything that drifts toward netball-style patterns – it rarely lands well. Many girls come to rugby precisely because it lets them express themselves in ways other sports did not.
- ›Rugby is unusually inclusive because it rewards a wide range of skills, not just catch/pass – which for many girls’ squads is the biggest technical challenge.
- ›Find and praise the other things a player does well – winning a ruck, holding up a scrum edge, pure pace – rather than measuring everyone against catch/pass alone.
The Environmental Challenges
- ›Many players arrive late – starting at U13, U14, U15 or even U16 with no prior rugby – so you will regularly be integrating genuine newbies into an established group.
- ›Squads often span year groups, an U12 moving into an U13 squad for example, which is a real and recurring challenge, not a one-off.
- ›Instead of thinking about winning the whole game, think about what part of the game a newer or younger player can help the team win – that is what makes them feel they are adding value and belong.
Build Their Game, Not a Senior Copy
The biggest mistake is looking too far ahead and trying to create a senior rugby outcome – building elaborate pods and too much structure – when the priority is building the game this group actually wants to play.
- ›There should be some structure, but not too much. Build towards what suits these players, not a scaled-down replica of the adult game.
Team Dynamics
- ›Cliques build easily, especially across mixed year groups – counter it by choosing training groups yourself rather than letting players self-select. Assign letters A/B/C/D and group by letter, reshuffling if players start gaming the system.
- ›New and late-starting players especially need confidence built through finding something in the game they are genuinely good at – rugby has enough different skills that almost everyone can find one.
- ›Show them explicitly: "we need you holding this side of the scrum because you are good at it", "we need your pace here." Every player wants to know where they fit.
Games V Drills
Games are not automatically democratic – they suit stronger players, who put themselves forward and on the ball. Break that up deliberately.
- ›Nominate first receivers so players who do not touch the ball much get a guaranteed role, and lean on smaller-sided games (4v4, or an uneven 4v6) rather than 8v8, where stronger players naturally dominate possession.
- ›Every game needs a challenge point – often something individualised ("catch it a bit earlier this game", "snap that placement a bit quicker, Sophie") rather than a generic instruction to the whole group.
- ›Keep scoring systems simple – cognitive load means players can only hold a few fresh things in mind at once, and a complex scoring system pulls focus away from the actual skill.
- ›Drills still matter: they give repetition, which builds confidence through visible success, and short queues mean you can give real targeted feedback.
From Me to Team Mindset
Do not expect chest-thumping "playing for the badge" – players connect through playing for their friends. Show them what that actually looks like in the game: connecting in defence, connecting in attack, relying on each other.
The Four Roots
Attacking clear, ball carry, catch/pass and defence – the core skill roots that carry through the season.
The Four Roots
Defence
- ›Go beyond simple 1v1 tackling early – work on two defenders combining against one attacker, then a 2v3, so players learn to connect rather than defend in isolation.
- ›This was a deliberate, high-payoff focus with a Bristol University women’s second team where over half the squad had never played before.
Attacking clear
›Get the first player past the ball so it is not hard to make a clearing pass, and make two players over the ball a given, every time – a simple, easily praised standard.
Ball carry
- ›Fight hard in contact, and focus on quick, fast ball presentation to give your team every chance of quick ball.
Catch / pass
- ›Technical outcomes make a massive difference.
- ›Avoid players reverting to lazy or creative passes when looking after the ball is so important.
Set Piece: Scrum and Lineout
Scrum
- ›Because players in women’s and girls’ rugby often move across scrum and back positions far more fluidly than in the boys’ game, spend a genuine 5 minutes every single week on scrum body position for every player, not just forwards.
- ›A strong, low position they can hold under sustained pushing.
Lineout
- ›Keep it to a simple two-player lineout with an underarm throw from the hooker at U14.
- ›Lifting can come in at U16, but it is probably not worth heavy investment – there are too many variables for a reliable payoff.
- ›Scrum body position is the better use of limited time.
Fast Ball, Slow Ball, and Kicking
Fast ball
- ›If the first player is beyond the ball and the second is beyond that, the ball is out fast – get it straight to the wing regardless of what is in front of anyone.
Slow ball
- ›Pass to a forward and get them to bounce out – not forward, not back in.
- ›It is harder to stop and gives them far better awareness of who is outside them.
- ›Teach BAM as shared language once players are ready to progress: Ball Always Moving, whether through passing, in contact, or working for quick recycle.
- ›Kicking: nominate specific players as kickers in training games and ask them, at different points, whether they want to kick – rather than leaving it open to anyone.
- ›Plan good kicking "in the office" (where and when) rather than working it out live, and know that kicking technique itself improves mostly outside training, not within it.
Quick, Not Systems
Defensively, do not spend much time on formal systems – focus on getting into a defensive line quickly and let structure follow naturally from that.
- ›A simple defensive principle: do not get beaten on the inside, for example inside the 15-metre line – you can only be beaten on the outside, so keep that channel solid against a quicker team and spread out as your defence improves.
- ›BIG (used by the Red Roses): get Back In the Game quickly after making a tackle, rather than staying down or drifting out of the next phase.
Structuring the Season
Block the season out rather than trying to fix everything at once: where are we at the first game, where are we by half-term, where are we by Christmas, where are we by February half-term. Chase one or two skills and one play to the first game, then layer on a new skill and a new play at each block.
- ›You are not dropping the other skills – you keep working them – but pick one absolute focus for each block and let everything else layer on underneath it.
- ›Introduce a play only when players are ready for it, and invite them to use it rather than shouting it on – hope to see it bedded in by Christmas, not forced in week one.
- ›Do not chase too many layers at once. A season with one clean skill and one clean play per block beats one with five half-finished ideas.
Session Structure
Naive rugby (which can include Activate-style movement) to connect players without necessarily making them more skilful yet, then roughly 8 minutes heavily focused on the one skill you are chasing, then set-piece unit work, then a balance of ABCD revision skills (no more than two) plus a game problem, then finish with a game that actually looks like rugby.
- ›If you do not have full numbers, slice the pitch into smaller-sided games (5v3, 3v5) rather than cutting the game itself – that is what players came for.
For a genuinely mixed-ability squad
- ›Stream some of the contact work into ability groups – same skill, different pace and intensity.
- ›Let your more experienced players mentor newer ones for 5–10 minutes a session, with clear guidance on what to look for, since it develops the mentor too.
- ›Where the gap is very wide, for example a county-level player and a complete newbie, run separate "extras" at the start or end of a session rather than trying to make one drill serve both.
Example 6-Week Plan
A simple way to sequence the skill and play focuses through the season.
| Week | Skill | Set piece | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tight grip | Quick scrum / pass wide | 6v3 quick ruck |
| 2 | Tight grip | Quick scrum / pass wide | 4v6 shut out |
| 3 | Ball placement | Lineout starts / play one | 6v3 sideline same way |
| 4 | Ball placement | Lineout starts / play one | 3v2 offload |
| 5 | Early catch | Scrum connect / play short | 4v6 shut out |
| 6 | Early catch | Scrum connect / play short | 6v3 quick ruck |
Each pair of weeks follows the show-it-then-test-it pattern in an 8-minute block, while the rest of the session keeps revising the wider ABCDs. The set piece column deliberately gets backs and forwards both genuinely involved – backs simply learning what a good wide pass off a quick scrum feels like, for example – rather than treating set piece as a forwards-only slice of the session.
Keeping Them Competent, Connected, Challenged
Success is not just the scoreline – it is winning the parts of the game you defined, individual players developing, and coach and players enjoying the progress together.
- ›Know where each player is now, what "good" looks like for them, and what "better" looks like – individual development matters as much as team results.
- ›Read enjoyment beyond smiles – a puffed-out chest, being a bit more chatty, or a quiet nod can all be signs a player is enjoying their progress.
- ›Build and develop together – you want players to feel you are enjoying their progress with them, not standing above them saying "follow me."
- ›Challenge players with genuine rugby problems, scaffolded to the group’s real starting point rather than assumed experience – they have come to a sporting environment and want to be pushed, individually and as a group, not just to go through the motions.
- ›Connect a player’s strength to their teammates explicitly ("when Sophie goes into contact, we always get the ball back") so the whole squad understands and values what each player brings.
Coaching Toolkit
- ›Build contact in layers rather than jumping straight to full intensity.
- ›Make sure practice looks like rugby – game-realistic, not drills for their own sake.
- ›Keep the chat positive.
- ›Rotate players in-game so everyone experiences different roles.
- ›Know when to step back and let players solve the problem themselves, allowing mistakes before stepping in.
- ›Hand over ownership of decisions where you can.
- ›
Click below to watch the webinar in full.
Dan Cottrell
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