Space then contact
A game sense 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
- 12 minutes
- Players
- 12 to 24
- Space
- 40 x 30 m
- Kit
- 10 cones, 1 ball
- Pitch
- Wants a forgiving surface
Setting it up
A pitch split down the middle. One half is touch only, the other half allows contact. Two teams.
How it runs
Move the ball through the touch half then it is contact once you cross the line. Five minute halves, then swap which half is which. Children default to running into people. This makes them use their hands first because in that half there is no other option.
What to watch for
- Use your hands while you have the space to
- Pick who takes the contact before you get there
- Contact is a choice, not what happens when you run out of ideas
Make it easier
- Touch everywhere
- Bigger pitch
Make it harder
- Two thirds touch, one third contact
- Narrower pitch
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- Running into a defender with acres of grass outside
- Look at the space first. Contact is a choice
- Nobody knowing who is taking the contact until it happens
- Say who is carrying it in before you get there
Safety. Age grade contact rules in the contact half. Watch for anybody carrying the touch-half habits into contact with a bad body position.
The RFU's Headcase is where to go for what to do after a bang on the head. It is theirs rather than ours.
More like this
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.