Use this quick attack-defence-evasion game to improve your players’ awareness and speed. It can easily be developed to include other elements like self-organisation and decision making.
Put four attackers in the middle of the box and four defenders on each corner.
Shout out a colour, and the attackers need to run to that line without being tagged.
The defenders race off their cones to tag a player.
Repeat three times before changing teams over.
NOTES
Don’t swap a player to a defender if they are tagged. Give them all the four chances. Also, note which way they are facing to give them more chance next time.
DEVELOPMENTS
Give every attacker a ball.
If an attacker is tagged, they don’t carry a ball next time.
Play with one ball. The ball can be passed in any direction. When you shout the colour, the ball must be passed by a static player.
Change the square into a rectangle.
Have one of the defenders call out the colour to attack.
Develop your players’ ability to recognise and exploit opportunities to counter-attack from turned over possession. By driving into tackle tubes, the attackers are disorientated momentarily. They then have to recover to play what’s in front of them. MORE
Let's consider planning our technical and tactical awareness to exploit a narrow defence. In other words, if there's an opportunity to attack when the attack has more numbers than the defence. In the simplest terms, that might be a 2 v 1. These sessions consider 3 v 2s and 4 v 3s and how and when to use the miss pass. MORE
Develop running angles and passing at pace, with a try after three passes as the goal. Passing “chains” rarely run in straight lines. A series of passes might have players attacking from different angles. They require different types of pass. MORE
Get players to attack defenders in close or wide situations. They will have to see where to run and change angle sharply at pace to adjust. Players need the confidence to change angles, especially those players who are not used to sprinting and conditioning. MORE
Mix up forwards and backs in attacks from rucks by running a box formation. Have two players at the front and two at the back. The ball carrier has multiple options to pass to when he attacks the line. MORE
Use this activity to put more decision-making pressure on the ball carrier and supporters. Make it a high tempo session with lots of goes, and feedback on the run rather than halting the exercise. MORE