Double tackle
A tackle drill for U11 and up, with where the cones go, how it runs and what to say when it is not working.
Free to read with no account. It works at a pitch with no signal too.
- Age grades
- U11, U12
- Time
- 11 minutes
- Players
- 9 to 21
- Space
- 15 x 15 m
- Kit
- 1 ball, 2 tackle shields
- Pitch
- Wants a forgiving surface
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
Threes. One carrier, two tacklers starting two metres apart.
How it runs
Two tacklers take one carrier. One goes low round the legs, the other goes higher on the ball but still below the chest. They have to sort out between themselves who is doing which before the carrier arrives. Six goes then rotate.
What to watch for
- Call it early. Low or high, say it out loud
- Low tackler goes first, high one arrives a beat later
- High tackler still stays below the chest
Make it easier
- Shield instead of a player
- Walking pace with the roles fixed
Make it harder
- Carrier jogs and may step
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- Both going low, so nobody has the ball
- Say low or high out loud before they reach you
- The high tackler creeping up towards the chest
- Below the armpit. Show them where that is on themselves
Safety. Two tacklers on one child needs watching closely. Walking pace until the calling is reliable. The high tackler is on the ball and below the chest, never near the head or the neck. Stop it the moment two heads end up in the same place.
The RFU's Headcase is where to go for what to do after a bang on the head. It is theirs rather than ours.
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The grades that can do it
What U11 rugby allows is the rule this sits under. Regulation 15 is reissued every summer, so the RFU's own rules of play are the ones to read for this season rather than a copy on somebody else's website. Ours included. Read against the RFU's 2026/27 appendices in August 2026.