Drop off touch
An evasion and footwork drill for U8 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
- U8, U9, U10, U11, U12
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Players
- 8 to 20
- Space
- 30 x 20 m
- Kit
- 4 cones, 2 balls
- Pitch
- Fine on hard ground
Setting it up
A pitch with a try line at each end, two even teams, one ball.
How it runs
Ordinary touch, with one change. Whoever makes a touch jogs off the side of the pitch and stays off until the ball turns over. So a defence that keeps touching people keeps getting smaller. Six minutes, then reset. It sounds unfair on the defence, which is exactly why it works: the attack starts seeing an extra player free instead of running into whoever is nearest.
What to watch for
- Look for the space where somebody has just left
- Move the ball to the free side quickly, before they fill it
- Defenders spread out again the moment one of you goes off
Make it easier
- Defender comes back on after five seconds
- Wider pitch
Make it harder
- Two touches then hand it over
- Touched player has to pass within three seconds
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- The attack running at the same defenders with a gap out wide
- Look where the spare man is. Move it that way
- Defenders bunched together after two of them have gone off
- Spread out. There are fewer of you now, so cover more grass
More like this
The grades that can do it
What U8 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.