Be brief when telling the players the laws of this game, it's important to get them moving quickly.
This is not a contact game.
Break your players into two teams, giving each team their own colour of bibs if necessary.
One team goes to attack, and one to defense.
Nominate a Scrum Half for each team.
There is no kicking in this game.
Normal laws of rugby apply e.g. a forward pass will result in the ball being turned over to the opposition.
If an attacking player is touched: they must go to ground, present the ball, two of their teammates ruck over (staying over the ball), and the Scrum Half moves the ball for the next phase of attack.
When you start playing this game make sure that the defense is employing your defensive pattern around the ruck. As the game develops consider telling the defenders that they must have one or more players at the back of the ruck, if they are not fast enough to do this - push them back 10 meters.
Have attacking players do what they normally would at the ruck.
Depending on your goals decide on the number of touches you wish to allow e.g. unlimited is not a bad option as mistakes will be made!
Don't hesitate to shape the game to focus on your session goals, and let us and other coaches know what worked for you!
Coaching points
This is not an exhaustive list of coaching points, but you may decide to focus on some of the following coaching points, depending on your session goals:
Good communication among defenders and attackers. It must be encouraging, meaningful, efficient, and effective.
Defenders should understand that the ball is lost, and form their defensive pattern at the ruck for what is coming next.
You might discuss briefly with players why we don't compete for balls that are lost, we don't want to concede a penalty.
Ball presentation must be quick, moving the ball proactively away from contact.
Players rucking over should be aware of when the ball is out of a ruck and act accordingly, are they driving over for no good reason and ending the ruck too early?
The Scrum Half should focus on getting the ball away in 5 seconds or less.
The Scrum Half pass should be effective over distance off both his right and left hand, address this later if you find a problem. Also - is the Scrum Half and First Receiver communicating enough with respect to the direction of the attack, the distance between them etc.
Line speed with respect to the defense. The attack should be using the ruck to create traffic; fast rucks to draw defenders in - then attacking the space created. This is sometimes referred to as overloading the defense.
Is the attacking team being creative e.g. running any preset backs moves? Why not? Or are they just attacking down the line?
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