Mirror ball

CHALLENGE

Play with your heads up.

how to do it

Activity

• Set out two back lines of three or four players, each with a feeder, standing opposite each other.
• Before the back lines play, dictate which “gap” they have to run through, so the penetrating runner is going through a different space to the group opposite.
• Get the feeder to run around a cone before passing to their back line.

Challenge each team to move the ball over their designated gap before the other.

Development

• Change widths of the attack area, so spaces are smaller.
• Make one group work flatter and the other deeper.
• Make it into a competition – for example, the least amount of dropped balls.

Game situation

• You need to change perceived pressure into actual pressure. Run a back line move against a defence, say 4v4, with a 9 passing to the first attacker.
• Tell one defender to drop to their front and do one press-up before rejoining the defence.
• The other defenders race up. The attackers run their move, aiming to use the right option to find the gap. If they break, then it is a 2v1.
• Change it to 4v3. Make the defenders spread out with different gaps between them (say 1m and 8m).

TECHNIQUE

• Identify space/gap the move will aim for.
• Execute the move at pace and before the gain line.

ACTIVITY