Defending the restart
A scrum and restarts drill for U12 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
- U12
- Time
- 9 minutes
- Players
- 10 to 22
- Space
- 35 x 30 m
- Kit
- 6 cones, 2 balls
- Pitch
- Wants a forgiving surface
Setting it up
A chasing team lined up behind the kick-off spot.
How it runs
Kick or throw it up. The chasers go as a line, arriving together rather than in ones and twos. Ten goes. A chase line that arrives together wins the ball back. A chase line where the fastest child gets there four seconds early hands it over.
What to watch for
- Nobody sets off before the ball. Stay onside
- Go as a line. Look left and right as you run
- First one there does not have to catch it, just stop them going forward
Make it easier
- Nobody receiving, just practise the line
- Walk the chase
Make it harder
- Add a receiving team so it is a live contest
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 quickest child forty metres ahead of everybody else
- Run at the pace of the slowest. Look sideways as you go
- Setting off before the ball has been kicked
- Wait for the ball to leave the foot. Watch it, not them
Safety. Nobody goes into a player who is off the ground with the ball. Wait for their feet to land. Stop it and reset if two children arrive at the same catch.
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 U12 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.