Colour call: Heads up decision making activity

If you are a good decision maker, you’ll keep your head up and look at the defence before acting. To develop players capable of making quick decisions, you need to give them plenty of opportunities to practise this technique under pressure.

Here’s a simple exercise to set and improve your players’ ability to play heads up rugby.

Set up a three versus two rugby drill in favour of the attack. The ball always starts with the middle player of the attacking three.

Stand behind the defenders. As the attackers start, hold up a coloured cone. The ball carrier has to shout out the colour of the cone as he is analysing the defence and making his decision about how and where to attack.

As your players improve, you can change cones during the attack, so all the ball carriers have to constantly scan what is in front of them while attacking.

Easier to harder

Some players may find this rugby drill very difficult at first. If so, let them walk through the rugby drill to start with before increasing the pace.

Or, start with a three v one.

Developments

Use the cones to indicate different passes/kicks that have to be used. For example, a yellow cone means only one hand passes, a blue cone means a kick after every pass.

Since the defence doesn’t know the signal, the attackers at least have a chance to surprise the defenders.