Keep away in a circle
A handling and passing 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
- 8 minutes
- Players
- 6 to 18
- Space
- 10 x 10 m
- Kit
- 4 cones, 1 ball
- Pitch
- Fine on hard ground
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
Five or six stood in a circle about seven metres across, one in the middle.
How it runs
Keep the ball away from the one in the middle. Pass it across the circle or round it, whichever is on. Touch the ball or force a drop and you swap with whoever gave it away. Count how many passes you string together and try to beat it. Nobody in the circle can move their feet, so the only thing that gets you out of trouble is passing it quicker than the middle one can turn.
What to watch for
- Hands out ready before it comes to you
- Look across the circle before you catch, not after
- Pass it to the far side rather than the child next to you
Make it easier
- Bigger circle
- Middle player walks
Make it harder
- Two in the middle
- Two balls going at once
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 ball going round the outside one player at a time
- Across the middle. Find somebody on the far side
- Hands by their sides until the ball is halfway to them
- Hands up and ready. Give them a target
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.