Rugby: Handling Skills Warm Up

circle of players 2 players in the middle one of the player with a ball.

The ball carrier has to run into contact with one of the outside player and turn to give the ball to the 2nd player in the middle who has to support very close. On being given the ball the new player with the ball has to run into contact with another player in the circle for the other player to support and get the ball.

• Lets just get the ball moving clockwise for a while, just to get the ball moving through the hands.
• After a minute or two, lets switch the direction of the ball.
• After another minute, tell them the ball can go in any direction, but......
• The receiver must have their hands in the air.
• The passer cannot pass to a player directly beside them.
• The passer can dummy, if a player takes their hand down they are out.
• The reciever can take their hands down to catch a ball if it is coming their way.
• You can also play this game using a word like RUGBY. Each time a play makes a mistake they get a letter. The loser is the first player to get all the letters that spell RUGBY. Some teams and coaches have more interesting and colorful words to spell - I'll leave this to you.
• You can make this game a little harder by reducing the size of the circle or by asking the players to touch their toes before catching the ball.
• You can also increase the number of balls in the circle.
• Have fun with this!

• Players start at the top of the triangle.
• Coach calls colours, 2/3 at a time.
• Player moves to the called cone, and returns to the start each time.
• Player should remain facing forward at all times, back tracking when they need to.
• Coach calls GO and players sprint 10 meters.

• This is a simple passing exercise that can be used as a warm up to improve players reaction time and catching skills
• 6 players and 1 coach in a circle, and the coach holds a ball at all times
• With the other ball, the players throw to you and (using the ball you're holding) hit the ball back to a different player in the circle
• The players will not know who the ball will come to and so must react quickly to catch and then throw back to you to hit to someone else
• The shape of the ball means that even if you aim at someone, it could deflect to another player.