Rugby drills split into five blocks a coach can run in one night: contact and breakdown, handling and passing, kicking and set piece, attack and defence, and decision-making under fatigue. Twenty of them sit below, grouped in the order a session runs. Each one gives you something to say, the error you will meet most often, and the level a player reaches next.
A rugby side is two teams in one shirt. Eight forwards need scrum shape, lineout timing, and work at the breakdown. Seven backs need width, hands, and running lines. Both halves want the same ninety minutes on a pitch that only fits so much at once, and half of them have already played a fixture that week. Add three U14s stepping up, one player who has never made a tackle, and a parent on the touchline asking when their child gets a run.
That is the problem this page is built around. Not which drills exist, since a search returns thousands, but how one training night holds twenty-eight players of wildly different levels and still moves each of them forward. Every drill below names the level a player has to reach before the next thing makes sense. Once you want to stretch that across a whole term, the framework we use for planning sessions lays out the weighting week by week.
What Are Some Rugby Drills?
The staple rugby drills are a two-sided passing series, a streamed contact block on pads, a 2v1 in a narrow channel, a lineout throw to a marked target, a line-defence up-and-hold, and touch rugby with a touch cap. Between them they cover handling, contact, attack, set piece, defence, and decisions. Any one of them can be slowed down for an U10 or sharpened for a colts side by changing the space, the pace, or the opposition.
The drills that follow are grouped so a coach can run two things at once and still keep the whole squad working.
Start From What Went Wrong on Saturday
Watch the fixture, then pick the block. Ball dying at the breakdown points at contact work. An attack that keeps running out of pitch before the winger sees the ball points at handling and running lines. Penalties at the ruck usually mean players arriving off the side of it when they should come through the gate. Nobody is unfit when that happens. It is a habit, and a habit can change inside a fortnight. Choose one weakness a week and let it own your biggest block.
What a Balanced Rugby Session Covers
A balanced rugby session touches five things, and the drill sections below are grouped to match them, in the order a coach tends to think in when a session needs building: contact and breakdown, handling and passing, kicking and set piece, attack and defence, and decision-making and conditioning.
Underneath those five sit eight skill areas that Striveon scores a rugby player against. Four of them are Contact Skills, Ball Handling, Kicking Skills, and Set Pieces. The other four are Attacking Skills and Defensive Skills, then Tactical Understanding and Physical Attributes. The five buckets above are those eight grouped for browsing, since kicking sits with set pieces on a training night and attack sits with defence. Each area holds five or six named sub-skills you can rate a player on. Contact Skills, for instance, runs from Tackling through to Defensive contact. Sub-skill labels appear throughout this article exactly as the product spells them, which is why a few of them carry US spellings.
All eight are editable from inside the app, which matters more than the list itself. Rename an area to match the words your club already uses. Add one if your programme cares about something the list misses. Drop whatever you never actually coach. Shipping a list simply means your first night opens on something workable instead of a blank screen.
The Ten-Point Scale That Answers "Ready for More?"
Every tracked skill in the rugby preset sits on the same scale of one to ten, and each level carries a written rugby behaviour. Those behaviours are what make the scale usable to you.
Level 3. Performs the skill in controlled conditions about half the time. The technique goes as soon as pace or an opponent turns up.
Level 4. Fine at a calm pace. Communication breaks under pressure, and contact is entered tentatively and under supervision.
Level 5. The step that matters most. Consistent in training around seven times in ten and entering contact confidently, with match application still patchy.
Level 7. Handles the skill under pressure roughly four times in five, anticipates teammates, and dominates contact.
Levels 9 and 10. Leads the team's game, finds solutions the rest miss, and teaches the players around them.
You will meet those numbers again on every drill card below. Each benchmark names the level the drill is trying to move your player onto, and describes what that level looks like on a pitch.
How a Rugby Training Night Is Sequenced
Ninety minutes is the working length of a club training night, and it is also the length the Striveon rugby preset uses for three of its four session templates. The templates themselves show the pattern: Contact Skills Foundation, Ball Handling and Attack, Tactical and Set Pieces, and Physical and Game Play. Each one leans on a single area while still touching several others. That is the shape worth copying.
Where Each Block Goes, and Why
Warm-up first, and give it real time. World Rugby's Activate programme(opens in new tab) is built for this slot, and its guidance on how to use it(opens in new tab) lists four versions: Under-15, Under-16, Under-18, and Adult. The youth ones run to twenty minutes and the adult programme to twenty-five, opening with a running-based warm-up before lower-limb work. There is nothing below Under-15, so if you coach minis or U12s you are building your own warm-up. It is a physical-preparation programme in its own right, so take its injury claims from World Rugby rather than second hand from a drill page.
Handling while everybody is fresh. Skill work degrades fast once players are tired, so the passing block goes early. Forwards do it too. A lock who cannot pass off the left hand costs your attack a channel.
Unit split in the middle. This is the block where forwards and backs genuinely need different work. Send the pack to lineout throwing and lifting, put the backs on 2v1 and running lines, and take an assistant coach with each group. Contested scrum work is not in here on purpose, because it needs a qualified front-row coach and a block of its own.
Contact in the fourth block, never the last. Players are warm by now and still sharp enough to hold their technique. Contact drilled by exhausted players is where the technique slips, and the tackle is the one skill nobody should be practising badly.
Finish with a game. Touch rugby or a small-sided game with one constraint tests whether anything from the night survived. Picking the constraint is the skill here, and our guide to small-sided game design works through the options.
Keeping Forwards and Backs Busy at the Same Time
The parallel block is the hardest thing to run well and the thing that decides whether a session feels organised. A few rules hold up across most squads:
Two coaches, two halves of the pitch. If you only have one, give the second group a drill that self-runs, like the passing series with a target count, and rotate to them every five minutes.
Never let a queue form. Eight players waiting behind one tackle pad have stopped training. Find a second pad or open a second channel before you accept a line.
Bring the groups back together for the game. Forwards and backs that only ever train apart play like two teams on Saturday.
Here is the whole ninety minutes on one sheet, with the minutes for each named drill in brackets so you can check the arithmetic against the cards further down. The blocks add up to ninety exactly. Every row is editable, so change the timings to match your squad size and whatever pitch time your club actually gets.
90-Minute Rugby Training Session
Player Name:
Jersey #:
Primary Position:
Age/Grade:
Date:
Evaluator:
Block
Focus
What Runs
Coaching Note
0-20 min
Warm-up and physical prep
Activate, or your own running warm-up into balance and landing control (20)
Activate starts at Under-15 and runs about 20 min. Below that, your own
20-30 min
Handling, whole squad
Two-Sided Passing Series (10)
Forwards handle here too, no exceptions
30-50 min
Unit split, both groups at once
Forwards: Lineout Throw Ladder (10) plus Synchronised Lift and Code (10). Backs: 2v1 Fix and Pass (10) plus Running Lines (10)
Both columns total 20, so the groups finish together
50-65 min
Contact and breakdown
Pick ONE: Two-Stream Contact Block (12), Contact Grid (15), or Clear-Out Through the Gate (12)
One card only. Every option sits inside the 12 to 15 minute dose
65-80 min
Conditioned game
Three-Touch Touch Rugby (15)
Or a small-sided game with one constraint
80-90 min
Cool-down and debrief
Light handling, stretch, two coaching points (10)
Name one thing the squad did better than last week
When Only Half the Squad Turns Up
February arrives and eleven players walk out, four of them backs. Unpredictable attendance is at least as hard to plan around as mixed levels, and most of the blocks above assume groups of six to eight. Rather than improvising in the car park, decide in advance what collapses first. The unit split is always the first thing to go, because it needs two workable groups. Contact is the first thing to cut entirely, since a thin squad gives you no realistic contest and a higher chance of a mismatch.
Players Who Turn Up
Blocks You Keep
What Changes
16 or more
The sheet as written
Nothing. The unit split works from 16, because both groups still have a workable pack and back line
10 to 15
Warm-up, handling, contact, conditioned game
Drop the unit split and run everybody through the backs column. Touch rugby goes to 5 a side
6 to 9
Warm-up, handling, one contact card
The conditioned game becomes a 3v2 channel, and the five-player line becomes a four-player line
5 or fewer
Warm-up, handling, kicking or lineout throwing
Drop contact. Numbers this low give you no realistic contest, so bank skill reps instead
Contact and Breakdown Drills
Contact is the block that separates rugby from every other invasion sport, and it is the block most likely to go wrong. World Rugby splits the relevant laws out clearly in its laws by number(opens in new tab): Law 9 covers foul play, Law 14 the tackle, Law 15 the ruck, and Law 16 the maul. Coach each of those as its own skill. Lumping them together as "contact" is how sessions get unsafe.
At this level the useful questions are how much, when, and for whom. No governing body publishes a number here, so treat what follows as a coaching judgment rather than a standard. Twelve to fifteen minutes of a ninety-minute night, taken in the fourth block, works for most club sides in season. Pre-season earns more. The week after a bruising fixture earns less. As for who needs it, rarely the whole squad equally, since your front five meet contact on almost every phase while a back three player can go long stretches of a match without one. Weight the block that way, and let the cards below carry the organisation.
Coaching Contact on Your Own
Most of this page assumes two coaches. Contact is the block where that assumption stops being harmless, so here is the protocol for the Thursday nobody else turns up.
Run one stream at a time. Never both at once.
Give the waiting group something that runs itself. A passing count or a footwork ladder with a target number, so nothing over there needs your eyes.
Cut the block to ten minutes. Ten supervised minutes beat fifteen unsupervised ones.
Hand a level 9 the non-contact group. It is a real coaching job, it is how they get to level 10, and it gives you back the pair of eyes the block needs.
Check Your Age Grade Before You Coach the Lineout
The laws of the game are not what governs your U13s. Every union stages the set piece by age on top of the laws, and those variations decide whether you are insured on the night. In England the RFU's guidance on introducing the lineout to age grade rugby(opens in new tab) stages it like this:
Boys U13, Girls U12 and below. No lineout at all.
Boys and Girls U14. Uncontested lineout, no lifting of any kind. The throw, the jump and land, the catch and delivery.
Boys U15. Uncontested lineout, with the lift permitted.
Boys and Girls U16 and above. The RFU's lineout variations stop here, so the World Rugby laws apply as written and the lineout is contested.
One consequence is easy to miss, because the girls' bands run U12, U14, U16 and U18 with no U15 in them. A boys side therefore meets the lift a full band earlier than a girls side does, which first meets it at U16. A boys-shaped age ladder hides that entirely. Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the rest publish their own regulations, and the scrum is staged separately again. Find your union's version, read the band you coach, and check it once more each season.
Those bands cover the lineout only. Contact is staged by age separately, and the numbers that decide what your side may do in a tackle or a ruck live with the drills that use them: tackle height on our rugby tackling drills guide, and the ruck contest bands on our rugby rucking drills guide. Both cite RFU Regulation 15 and its per-band appendices.
None of the cards below stages a tackle progression, because that is a course in itself. Our rugby tackling drills guide runs fifteen drills across five stages, from body position and pads through first contact, angles, and live contested work, with tackle height and Law 14 covered properly. If your ball keeps dying on the deck instead, our rugby rucking drills guide treats the breakdown as a decision rather than a scrap, working through the offside line, the jackal, the counter-ruck, and the age-graded route from touch into live contest.
Two-Stream Contact Block
Contact and BreakdownAll levels
Players: Whole squad, split in twoTime: 12 minEquipment: Tackle pads for one stream, cones for the other
Builds: A contact block that fits every level in the squad at once
Split the squad by contact level before the block starts, never once it is running. One stream works technique on pads with a coach watching every rep, while the other runs the same picture without the collision, so a player who has never tackled still trains the read, the footwork, and the support line.
Reps: Two rounds of 6 minutes, with the streams reviewed between them
Target: A player earns the contact stream at level 4, where contact happens under supervision. Level 5 is the night they stop needing you stood over them.
Coaching cues
Set the streams before the whistle · No contact rep goes unwatched · Moving up is your call, not theirs
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Running one contact block for everybody and hoping the nervous players hide at the back
Fix: Name both streams out loud when the night begins, so nobody has to opt out in front of their mates.
Contact Grid at Three Intensities
Contact and BreakdownIntermediate
Players: Groups of 6 to 8Time: 15 minEquipment: Cones for a 10 m x 10 m grid
Builds: Contact habits under coach control
Mark a 10 m by 10 m grid and work three stations inside it: tackle, ruck, and carry into contact. Each station runs at three intensities, technical first, then roughly half force, then match intensity. Four minutes per station with a minute to rotate. Nobody moves up an intensity until the technique holds at the one below. Three live stations need three pairs of eyes, so on your own run it as one station with the whole group queuing behind it.
Reps: 5 reps per intensity, 4 min per station plus a minute to rotate
Target: A level 6 player holds the shape at match intensity across varied situations, though a genuine surprise can still break it.
Coaching cues
Technique first, force second · Stop the rep the moment the shape goes · Eyes open into contact
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Jumping the whole group to full intensity because a few look ready
Fix: Hold the group at the intensity the least confident player can manage safely, and coach the others harder.
Clear-Out Through the Gate
Contact and BreakdownIntermediate
Players: Groups of 4Time: 12 minEquipment: 1 ball, 4 cones
Builds: Legal arrival and a low clear-out
A carrier goes to ground and presents the ball long. Two support players arrive from behind the hindmost foot, through the gate, and clear one defender off the ball. Coach the entry point before the effort, because a support player who comes in from the side gives away a penalty no matter how strong the clear-out is. Add a second defender once the arrivals are clean.
Reps: 10 rucks, rotating the carrier each time
Target: Level 5 shows up as a player who arrives through the gate on most reps in training. Level 7 keeps doing it when the fixture is tight.
Coaching cues
Enter from behind the last foot · Low, then lift and drive · Shout your arrival
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Arriving off the side of the ruck because it is the shorter route
Fix: Walk each player back through the gate after an illegal entry so the legal line becomes the habit.
Offload Out of Contact
Contact and BreakdownAdvanced
Players: Groups of 3Time: 8 minEquipment: 1 ball, 1 tackle pad
Builds: Keeping the ball alive through the tackle
The carrier attacks a pad, wins the collision with a strong leg drive, and frees one arm to pop the ball to a support runner arriving late and at pace. The support player has to call. Start with the pad passive and the support runner known, then let the coach point at the supporter a beat before contact so the carrier has to find them.
Reps: 6 carries each, both shoulders
Target: Score a 7 when the offload survives real pressure and the support runner is anticipated, already moving before the collision.
Coaching cues
Win the contact first · Free the outside arm · Support runs onto the ball, past the tackle
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Throwing the offload before the collision is won, which gifts the defence a loose ball
Fix: Make the carrier take one full drive step after contact before the arm is allowed to come free.
Handling and Passing Drills
You cannot pass the ball forward in rugby union, so every metre of width is bought with a pass that travels sideways or back while the players run forward. That is why handling looks harder than it is. The Striveon preset tracks six named handling sub-skills: Passing, Catching, Ball carrying, Pop pass, Spin pass, and One-handed pass. Most squads are competent at three of them and quietly avoid the rest.
What Is the 5 Person Rugby Drill?
There is no single drill in the laws or the coaching syllabus called "the five person drill". When coaches say it, they nearly always mean a five-player handling chain: five players spread across a channel, moving the ball from one edge to the other while running forward together, then turning at the far cone and coming back. Five is the useful number here. It is big enough to demand real depth and small enough that the ball reaches every pair of hands on every length. The version with setup, cues, and the fault that breaks it is the second card below.
The first card below gets a squad passing accurately off either hand. What it will not do is fix an attack that keeps stalling before the ball reaches the winger. For that, our rugby passing drills guide runs fifteen drills across five stages, including the catch-pass grid under pressure, full-line width, and a conditioned game that forces the ball wide.
Partners stand ten metres apart and pass on the spot, twenty in a row to the left and twenty to the right. Hands go to the ball, hips turn to the target, and the follow-through finishes pointing where the ball went. Most squads are fluent one way and ragged the other. The weak side is the one that decides how wide your attack can go, so give it the longer half of the block.
Reps: 20 clean passes each direction
Target: Level 3 is roughly half landing on target in calm conditions. Level 5 holds up once players are moving.
Coaching cues
Hands out early to meet the ball · Hips to the target · Follow through at the receiver's chest
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Turning the shoulders but leaving the hips square, which drops the pass short
Fix: Have the passer step across with the front foot so the hips have to follow the ball.
Five-Player Passing Line
Handling and PassingIntermediate
Players: Groups of 5Time: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones for a 20 m channel
Builds: A moving line that keeps depth and width
Five players spread across a twenty-metre channel and run the ball from one edge to the other while jogging forward together. The passer follows the pass. The receiver runs onto the ball at pace. Turn at the far cone and come back. Raise the pace only when the line holds its shape, because a five-player chain falls apart at the moment somebody drifts sideways.
Reps: 6 lengths of the channel, alternating the starting side
Target: You are looking at level 6 when the chain survives a change of direction and a defender running at the line.
Coaching cues
Stay behind the ball carrier · Run straight, pass late · Follow your own pass
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Drifting sideways when the line should be running forward, which shuts the space the pass was meant to open
Fix: Put a cone gate in front of each player so the line has to advance through it before the ball moves on.
Spin Pass to the Far Channel
Handling and PassingIntermediate
Players: Pairs or threesTime: 8 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones
Builds: Distance on the pass that misses out a defender
Move the pairs out to fifteen metres. The passer swings the ball across the body and spins it off the top hand so it holds a flat line to the target. This is the pass that skips a man and puts a winger into space, and it is also the pass that gets forced. Keep the distance honest. If four in ten are wobbling, come back in two metres and build out again.
Reps: 10 passes each side at 15 m
Target: Level 5 lands seven of ten flat and catchable off the stronger hand at fifteen metres.
Coaching cues
Top hand does the spinning · Swing through the body · Aim in front of the receiver
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Lobbing the ball high to reach the distance, which gives the cover defence time to slide across
Fix: Drop the target distance until the pass is flat, then add a metre at a time.
Three-Touch Touch Rugby
Handling and PassingAll levels
Players: Two teams of 6 to 8Time: 15 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones for a half pitch
Builds: Handling, support, and decisions with no contact
Touch rules, ball to ground on the touch, quick restart. Cap the attack at three touches so the ball has to move early and the support has to be there. Every pass is called before it is thrown.
Reps: Two halves of 7 minutes, with a minute to turn around
Target: Level 6 is a player who talks all the way through a live game. Level 7 is when they read the space and call for the ball before the touch has happened.
Coaching cues
Support in a triangle behind the carrier · Call the pass before you throw it · Spread the pitch
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Everybody flooding to the ball, which leaves the far channel empty
Fix: Award the try double if it finishes in the outside third, and the shape fixes itself in two minutes.
Kicking and Set-Piece Drills
Set piece and kicking share a block for a practical reason. Both are specialist work that a small part of the squad does most of, so both belong in the unit split where a hooker can throw fifty balls while the backs are doing something else entirely. The preset tracks them as two areas, Kicking Skills and Set Pieces, with the punt, grubber kick, chip kick, box kick, conversion, and drop goal on one side, and the scrum, lineout, kick-off, scrum defense, lineout lifting, and the lineout throw on the other.
The lineout is the set piece most worth your training time at club level. A scrum needs eight bodies and a qualified front row before it means anything, while a lineout throw can be drilled by two players against a wall. Law 18 covers the lineout. Law 19 governs the scrum, which is a specialist area deserving a proper coach.
What Is the 40/20 Rule?
The 40/20 belongs to rugby league, so if the phrase turns up at your club it has come across from the other code. Union's nearest equivalent is the 50:22. World Rugby describes it(opens in new tab) as a kick from inside the attacking team's half that bounces inside the opposition 22 and then goes into touch, with the kicking side rewarded by the throw-in. That is the one to teach, and the punt-into-a-box card below is where the accuracy for it comes from. The box kick trains a different shape entirely: high and hanging, for a chase to contest in the air.
Punt Into a Ten-Metre Box
Kicking and Set PieceBeginner
Players: Individual or pairsTime: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones for a 10 m box
Builds: A punt that lands where you aimed it
Set a ten-metre square of cones thirty metres out and kick into it from a standing start. Let the ball drop onto the foot from hip height, drive the leg through to the target, and point the plant foot where the ball should land. Ten reps on technique alone, then start counting. Set the target yourself from wherever your kicker is today, write the number down, and move it as they improve. A number you track beats a standard you borrowed.
Reps: 10 technique reps, then 10 scored kicks
Target: Level 5 is hitting your own target consistently while calm. Level 7 holds that rate with a chase line breathing down on them.
Coaching cues
Drop the ball, never throw it · Plant foot points at the target · Swing through, do not stab at it
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Tossing the ball upward before the strike, which makes the contact point different every time
Fix: Have the kicker hold the ball at hip height and release it late, so gravity does the work.
Box Kick and Chase
Kicking and Set PieceIntermediate
Players: Groups of 5 to 6Time: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball
Builds: A contestable kick with a chase already running
Two or three players form a pod over a ball on the ground to stand in for a ruck. The scrum-half kicks from the base of it with the ball high enough to hang, while two chasers leave on the strike and compete in the air. Height matters more than distance here.
Reps: 8 kicks, rotating the chase pair
Target: Score a 6 once the chase leaves on the strike and arrives as the ball does on most reps.
Coaching cues
Height over length · Chase leaves on the strike · First chaser competes, second cleans up
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Kicking long and flat so the chase can never get there
Fix: Coach the hang time first and let the distance shorten while you do it.
Lineout Throw Ladder: Front, Middle, Back
Kicking and Set PieceBeginner
Players: Forwards in threesTime: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball per three, a marked target
Builds: A straight throw at every lineout distance
Every forward throws, in threes, working a ladder of five metres for the front ball, roughly nine for the middle, and twelve to fifteen for the throw to the back. The back ball is where a hooker actually struggles, so your hooker takes the most reps and the other seven become the cover for the Saturday the hooker turns up with a bad shoulder.
Reps: 5 throws each per distance, rotating the thrower every set while the other two retrieve
Target: Level 4 gets the front ball away cleanly at a calm tempo. Level 5 is around seven in ten there, and level 7 holds eight in ten out at the back ball with lifters moving in front of the target.
Coaching cues
Ball over the top of the head · Both thumbs finish pointing at the target · Same rhythm at every distance
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Only ever throwing the front ball, so the long throw stays untested until a fixture
Fix: Score the three distances separately. A hooker who lands nine of ten at the front and three at the back needs the back ball, not more volume.
Synchronised Lift and Code Call
Kicking and Set PieceIntermediate
Players: Groups of 4 (jumper, 2 lifters, hooker)Time: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball
Builds: A lift that goes up together and a call the pod trusts
Check your age grade before running this one: under RFU rules there is no lift at U14, it arrives at Boys U15, and the full contest follows at U16. Lifting pairs extend at the same moment while the jumper guides with the hands and keeps the weight off the lifters. Ten lifts before the ball comes into it. Then run a three-player lineout with a simple code, one word for the front and one for the back, and vary it across ten throws. The lift is a timing skill, so the call and the jump have to leave together.
Reps: 10 lifts, then 10 coded throws
Target: Level 6 wins the ball off a varied code against opposition, whichever code comes out.
Coaching cues
Lifters extend together · Jumper drives off one leg · Call, then go, with nothing in between
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: One lifter going early, which tips the jumper and turns a clean take into a scramble
Fix: Count the lift in out loud for a whole set until the pair move as one.
Attack and Defence Drills
Attack and defence are the same drill viewed from opposite ends. A 2v1 trains the attacker to fix a defender, and it trains that defender to stop drifting off the ball carrier too early. Running the two together saves pitch time and keeps everybody involved, which matters when you have twenty-eight players and one floodlit half.
The preset separates them, tracking Running lines, 2v1 situations, Support play, Space exploitation, Footwork, and Counter-attack under Attacking Skills, then Line defense, Line speed, Communication, Positioning, Turnovers, and Kick chase under Defensive Skills. Notice how many of the defensive sub-skills are about talking. That is deliberate. A defensive line goes wrong through silence far more often than through weak tackling.
2v1 Fix and Pass
Attack and DefenceBeginner
Players: Groups of 3Time: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones for a 10 m x 15 m channel
Builds: Committing a defender before releasing the ball
In a narrow channel, the carrier runs at the defender's inside shoulder and holds the ball in two hands until the defender commits. Only then does the pass go. The receiver stays wide, hands up, running straight at the try line. Passive defender first, then live.
Reps: 10 reps per attacker, then swap the defender in
Target: Level 5 fixes the defender consistently in training. Level 7 does it against a defender who is reading them.
Coaching cues
Run at the inside shoulder · Two hands on the ball · Hold the ball until the defender commits
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Passing early because the defender looks close, which lets that defender drift onto the receiver
Fix: Ban the pass until the attacker is within two metres of the defender, then relax the rule once the timing lands.
Support Triangle at Pace
Attack and DefenceIntermediate
Players: Groups of 3 to 4Time: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones
Builds: Support that arrives in the right place at the right depth
Two support players hold a triangle two to three metres behind the carrier and travel with them across the pitch. Walk it first so everybody sees the shape, then run it at full speed.
Reps: 10 runs at walking pace, then 10 at speed
Target: Level 6 means the triangle survives a change of direction. Below that, the shape holds only when the carrier runs straight.
Coaching cues
Two to three metres back · One either side of the carrier · Match the carrier's pace, do not pass them
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Overrunning the carrier, which leaves the ball with nowhere to go after contact
Fix: Make the support players start a stride behind and hold that gap the whole length of the pitch.
Running Lines: Hard, Arc, and Drift
Attack and DefenceIntermediate
Players: Groups of 4Time: 10 minEquipment: Cones, 1 ball
Builds: Three line shapes and the judgement to pick one
Run each line type eight times with no opposition first. The hard line goes straight at the defender, the arc swings back and out, and the drift slides laterally across the face. Add a passive defender and let the attacker choose, calling the line out loud as they run it. Naming the line is what turns a run into a decision.
Reps: 8 reps per line type, then 10 free-choice reps
Target: Level 7 picks the line that suits the defender's body position and gets it right most times under pressure.
Coaching cues
Call the line before you commit · Change of pace sells the arc · Hard line means genuinely hard
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Running a soft arc that no defender believes, so nobody is fixed and no space opens
Fix: Take out the arc for a week and drill the hard line alone until running straight is the default.
Line Defence: Up and Hold
Attack and DefenceIntermediate
Players: Groups of 6 to 8Time: 12 minEquipment: Cones, 1 ball
Builds: A defensive line that moves as one and talks
Set the line with two metres between players and no ball at all. On the call of up, everybody advances together. On hold, everybody stops. Ten repetitions in each direction, with everybody watching the spacing. Then add an attacking chain so the defenders have to share targets out loud. One silent gap is all a good back line needs.
Reps: 10 advances without the ball, then 4v3 with an overlap to shut down
Target: Level 5 holds the spacing and talks in training. Level 8 keeps the line honest late in a fixture when everybody is tired.
Coaching cues
Two metres apart, no more · Name your man out loud · One player moves, everybody moves
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: The keenest defender shooting out of the line and leaving the gap inside them
Fix: Reset the whole line every time a gap appears, so the group owns the error together.
Decision-Making and Conditioning Drills
The last two preset areas, Tactical Understanding and Physical Attributes, are the ones coaches most often leave to look after themselves. Tactical Understanding tracks Game reading, Decision making, Role understanding, Situational awareness, and Game plan. Physical Attributes tracks Speed, Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Power. Neither shows its true level when a player is fresh and the drill is predictable.
So put your decision work after the running. Always after.
Decision Channel Under Fatigue
Decision and ConditioningIntermediate
Players: Groups of 5 to 6Time: 12 minEquipment: Cones, 1 ball, coloured bibs
Builds: Reading the picture when the legs are gone
Run a channel where the coach changes the defensive numbers between repetitions without announcing it. Sometimes there is an overlap, sometimes there is not. The attackers have to look up, count, and choose. Put this block after the conditioning work, never before it, because the decision that matters is the one made at minute seventy.
Reps: 10 runs with the numbers varied each time
Target: Level 8 is a player who anticipates the picture and starts talking before the ball reaches them. Level 5 reads it correctly but only after the ball arrives.
Coaching cues
Heads up before you receive · Count the defenders out loud · Commit to the choice you called
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Running a pre-agreed move regardless of what the defence is showing
Fix: Take away the move entirely for a few reps so the only option left is to look and react.
Counter-Attack From a Kick
Decision and ConditioningAdvanced
Players: Groups of 6 or moreTime: 10 minEquipment: 1 ball, cones
Builds: Turning a received kick into an attack
A coach kicks long into the backfield. The catcher takes it cleanly, calls their intention immediately, and two support runners arrive on either side. The options are simple: run it back through the gap, or find touch. The skill is in the call, and the call has to come before the chase arrives.
Reps: 8 kicks, rotating who receives
Target: A level 9 back three player turns broken play into a genuine chance and organises the runners around them while doing it.
Coaching cues
Call catch or mark early · Attack the space between chasers · Support arrives on both sides
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Catching and standing still, which invites the chase to fold the attack back on itself
Fix: Give the receiver one second to decide before the chasers are released, and shorten that as they improve.
Short Acceleration Repeats
Decision and ConditioningAll levels
Players: Whole squadTime: 10 minEquipment: Cones
Builds: The first ten metres, which is where rugby is won
Ten-metre sprints from three different starts: standing, from a jog, and up off the ground. Full recovery between reps, because this is a speed block and not a fitness punishment.
Reps: 2 sets of 4 sprints, a full minute of recovery between each
Target: Level 5 holds clean acceleration mechanics through the whole set, with the last rep as sharp as the first.
Coaching cues
Drive the first three steps · Arms work hard and straight · Stand tall by metre seven
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Turning the block into conditioning by cutting the rest, which trains tiredness
Fix: Time the recovery and be strict with it, or move the block to the end of the session.
Agility Ladder to Live Cut
Decision and ConditioningAll levels
Players: PairsTime: 8 minEquipment: Ladder or cones
Builds: Footwork that survives contact with a defender
Feet through the ladder, then a live one-on-one against a defender who is stood two metres beyond it. Alternate who beats whom so the defender gets reps too.
Reps: 8 runs each, alternating attacker and defender
Target: Level 6 beats a live defender with a genuine change of direction in varied situations, and again three reps later.
Coaching cues
Low centre of gravity out of the ladder · One hard step, then go · Eyes on the defender's hips
Common mistake & fix
Mistake: Slowing down between the ladder and the defender, which throws away the footwork you just built
Fix: Move the defender closer so there is no time to reset between the two halves of the drill.
Build Your Rugby Session
Whatever you ticked while reading has landed in the planner below. It totals the minutes, so the night you have assembled can be checked against the pitch time you booked before you get there. Print it, or hand it to an assistant.
Your Rugby practice plan
Add drills from the sections above to build a session you can export, print, or copy
One good training night is a night. A season is fifty of them, and that is where a loose collection of drills stops working. Tagging is what keeps a growing collection findable, and our guide to organising a drill library covers the schemes that hold up over a season.
Age bands are a rough guide. The scale is the real one. An U16 who has played since primary school and an U16 who joined in September are not at the same level, and the team sheet will not tell you which is which. Rate the skill, then pick the drill.
Levels 1 to 3: Learning the Shape
New players and most U8 to U12 groups sit here. Keep the space generous and the opposition passive. Touch rugby does an enormous amount of work at this level, because it delivers handling, support, and decisions without a single collision.
Levels 4 to 6: Holding Up Under Pressure
This is where most U13 to U16 squads live, and where the interesting coaching happens. Getting a player from 4 to 5, from tentative contact to confident, is usually a question of volume. A new drill rarely does it.
Levels 7 to 10: Leading the Game
Colts and senior players. By level 9 a player is finding solutions nobody else saw and organising those around them. Give your level 9s a coaching job in the session. Nothing else moves them to 10 as quickly, and it buys you a second pair of hands.
The table below puts the three bands, what each looks like on a pitch, the drills that suit it, and what earns the step up. Print it and mark players off through the season.
Rugby Drill Progression by Development Level
Player Name:
Jersey #:
Primary Position:
Age/Grade:
Date:
Evaluator:
Level Band
What It Looks Like
Drills That Fit
What Earns the Step Up
Levels 1-3 (U8 to U12, new players)
Executes in controlled conditions about half the time. Technique goes the moment pace or opposition arrives
Two-sided passing series, the non-contact stream, 2v1 fix and pass, three-touch touch rugby
Add opposition when the skill survives a walking-pace rep with a teammate moving nearby
Levels 4-6 (U13 to U16, developing)
Calm pace is fine. Communication breaks under pressure, and contact is entered tentatively at first
Contact grid, clear-out through the gate, five-player line, lineout lift and code, line defence
Move up when contact is entered confidently and the skill shows up in a fixture as well as in training
Levels 7-10 (colts and senior)
Handles the skill under pressure roughly four times in five, anticipates teammates, and dominates contact
Offload out of contact, spin pass to the far channel, counter-attack from a kick, decision channel
Levels 9 and 10 lead the team's game and coach the players around them, so give them that job
Drills for Beginners, Kids, and Senior Players
The same twenty drills serve a school taster session and a senior side. What changes is the space, the opposition, and how much contact sits inside the night. Three groups come up most in searches, so here is how each one differs.
Rugby Drills for Beginners
A beginner needs the ball in their hands more than anything else. Run the two-sided passing series, then touch rugby, and keep going until catching a moving ball stops being an event. Contact comes later and it comes slowly, on pads and in the stream that suits them. A first session with no collision in it is a good first session.
Rugby Drills for Kids and U12s
Under-12s learn through games, so wrap the skill inside one. Turn the passing series into a target count and let the group beat their own number. Keep every group small. Praise a clean pass off the weak hand as loudly as a try, because the weak hand is the thing that will decide how good they are at sixteen.
Rugby Drills for Senior and Veteran Players
Senior and social sides want a contest more than a technical clinic. Give them the conditioned game earlier in the night and use it as the vehicle for whatever skill you wanted to coach. Keep the acceleration work honest with full recovery between reps, and protect your warm-up. A full Activate warm-up matters more at 35 than it did at 18, and it is the first thing an experienced squad will try to talk you out of.
The contact block on this page organises a mixed squad. This one rebuilds the breakdown itself, for the Thursdays when your ball keeps dying on the deck.