How to teach rucking and mauling from scratch
Rucks arrive at U10 and the first month of them is chaos in every club in the country. The way out is to coach the second after the tackle before you coach the contest, because most of what looks like bad rucking is a ball nobody could have won.
Free to read with no account. It works at a pitch with no signal too.
What actually arrives at U10
Less than the parents think. The ruck at this grade is capped at two players a side counting the carrier and the tackler, so it's a contest between one arriving player and one other. It's not a pile.
- Everybody stays on their feet. Off your feet and it's a free pass against you
- One supporting player each. The cap of two includes the carrier and the opponent
- Five seconds once it's won. The referee calls "Use it" and the clock is short
- Come through the gate. Join from behind your own team's hindmost foot, never from the side
- Drive over, then the next player passes it. Nobody gets to stand there guarding it
The U10 rules guide has the whole thing. Read it before the first contact session of the season rather than after the first match, because this is the part referees will actually stop the game for.
Teach the floor before the contest
Three quarters of a bad ruck is a bad placement. If the ball ends up under the tackled player's chest, nobody on earth is clearing it, so this comes first and keeps coming back all season.
- Long arms. Place the ball back towards your own team, stretched out as far as you can reach
- On your side, not your front. Twist as you land so the shoulder goes down first
- Then roll away. Away from the ball and out of everybody's road, quickly
- The tackler gets up first. Release, stand up, then you're allowed to touch the ball again
- Long placement, 10 minutes
- Turn the turtle, 8 minutes
- Tackle and get up, 10 minutes
The order to teach it in
One: arrive and stay standing
A ball on the floor, a cone either side, one player arriving to step over it and stay up. No opposition at all. It looks trivial for about four minutes, then you see how many of them fall over their own feet.
- Step over and stay, 9 minutes
Two: the arriving shape
Fast, then balanced, then in. They sprint to get there, drop into a crouch with short steps a metre out, then go in low with the shoulder and keep the legs driving. The crouch is the bit everybody leaves out, which is why they arrive upright and bounce off.
Three: one against one
Now add the defender over the ball. Shoulder under their chest, drive through them rather than at them, feet never stopping. At this grade that's the whole contest, so it's worth doing properly rather than adding numbers.
- Clear the threat, 11 minutes
- Two second ruck, 12 minutes
Four: who goes in, who stays out
The decision is harder than the technique. Two go in, everybody else stays on their feet in the line ready for the pass. Left alone, all eight will pile in and your squad will get scored against down the outside every week.
- Who goes in, 11 minutes
- Five second count, 10 minutes
The maul, which is the ruck standing up
A maul starts when the carrier is held up by an opponent and one of their own team binds on. Three players, all on their feet, all going somewhere. Same cap as the ruck at U10 and the same five seconds once it's formed.
- Stay tall. Heads and shoulders up, small steps, feet never together
- Bind properly. A hand on a shirt is not a bind. Whole arm, gripped
- Turn your back on them. The carrier turns side on so the ball is away from the opposition
- Move it before it stops. A maul that has stopped going forward has to release the ball straight away
The one that catches sides out: when the carrier is held but still upright and has stopped going forward, the ball has to come out of there. There's no count and no shout to wait for. Half your first month at U10 is spent teaching them to move it before anybody tells them to.
- Three man maul, 10 minutes
What to say
- Long arms with that ball
- Roll away, you're in the road
- Get low before you get there
- Through him, not into him
- Feet, feet, feet
- Two in. Everybody else get out and get in the line
- Stay on your feet or it's their ball
What going wrong looks like
| What you see | What to say |
|---|---|
| Everybody piling in, nobody in the backline | Two in. If somebody's already there, you're out |
| Arriving upright and bouncing off | Crouch before you get there, then go through |
| Diving on top of the ball | On your feet or you've given it away |
| The ball under the tackled player | Long arms. Reach it back to your own side |
| Tackler lying over the ball | Up first, then you can touch it |
| Joining from the side | Round the back and in through the gate |
How it changes as they go up
| Grade | What's new | What to work on |
|---|---|---|
| U10 | Ruck and maul arrive, capped at two a side | Placement, arriving on your feet, one against one |
| U11 | The cap goes to three a side, so it's two against two | Two arriving together, counter rucking, the maul |
| U12 | No cap at all. As many as you like | Deciding who goes in, ruck to ruck, speed of ball |
- Counter ruck, 11 minutes
- Pick and go, 9 minutes
Common questions
Why is my squad's ruck always a pile of bodies?
Because nobody's told them how many go in. The number at U10 is one supporting player each, so say it out loud every session until it sticks. Standing a coach in the backline shouting for the ball helps more than anything you do at the ruck itself.
What is squeeze ball and why does everybody go on about it?
It's going to ground and squeezing the ball out between your legs rather than placing it. It's banned at every age grade and no coach may teach it, because it puts a child head first into the floor with people arriving over the top. If you see it, stop it and explain why.
Can they pick the ball up and run from a ruck?
Only if no ruck has formed yet. Once it has, the ball has to be passed away. At U10 a player who's driven over the ball can't then pick it up themselves either, so the next one there passes it.
How do I coach this without anybody getting hurt?
Soft ground, sizes matched, walking pace for the first two weeks and shoulders never below hips. Most breakdown injuries in minis are a knee or a head meeting somebody arriving too fast to stop, so slow the arrival down until the shape is right.
The rules on this page are Regulation 15 and they are the RFU's. How to teach it is ours, written from the RFU's age grade coaching material and World Rugby's Tackle Ready, then tried at training. A club coach who has done this for ten years will have a better order than ours for some of it. Take theirs.
Read against the RFU's 2026/27 appendices in August 2026.
The RFU's own U10 rules of play · Their contact training guidance · Headcase, on concussion
The drills that go with it
What U10 is allowed to do is the rules side of this, which is where every number on this page comes from.