Rugby: Stuck In The Mud - Rugby Style

Keep your playing briefing, brief and tell the players the following laws.

• Both teams are in attack and both teams are in defence, at the same time!
• It is up to you how many players you allocate to your attack and how many you allocate to your defence.
• If you are touched while carrying the ball (decide if the touch is one handed or two handed), you and your entire team must return to your red zone before being able to restart your attack. While your team is returning to your own zone - you cannot defend the neutral zone and any touches in there will not count.
• If your team makes a mistake e.g. a dropped ball or forward pass. Your entire team must return to your own red zone, not defending the neutral zone as you retreat.
• The winning team is the team that invades the oppositions space and scores a try, just outside the grid, first.
• There is no offside in defence.
• There is no kicking.

Involve a ball in your warm-up.

Get players to pass the ball around their head to flex the neck and shoulders.

• The attackers need to get from one end of the grid, a safe zone, to the other end of the grid, another safe zone, without getting touched.
• You decide if the touch should be two hands or one hand.
• You decide when Hares can run, the attack begins on your call and each Hare has 10 seconds to start their attack.
• If a Hare is touched, they become a Hound - joining the defence.
• The last Hare standing or touched is the winner.
• The last two Hares in each game, become the first two Hounds.
• Tell your players the laws of this game, but keep your player briefing, brief!

• Tell the players that one group is the Mice and that mice have tails, their tags. The other group is not happy with the Mice, they are the Farmers Wives and - they need to chop the tails of the Mice off! The tails are the tags. The Farmers wives can run anywhere, in all directions, within the playing area - as can the Mice.
• The Farmers Wives can work together to hunt a Mouse.
• When a Mouse has their tail chopped off, they have to go to the chop zone (there might be some light fitness work there for them, your call. With older players you might have more interesting fitness work or challenges in the Chop Zone).
• You might decide that one tail is enough to be sent to the chop zone, or maybe they have a second chance and the Farmers Wives need to get both tails.
• Don't forget to change over after a period of time, counting the number of Mice in the chop zone. The winning team is the team with fewer Mice in the chop zone at the end of their playing time. You might decide on about five minutes a half.
• Have a bit of fun with this and let us know what variations worked for you!