Kick-chase line

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Rugby drill · Under-11 and up

A kick is only as good as the chase, and a chase is only as good as the slowest player in it. A line of chasers who arrive together gives the catcher nowhere to run; one who arrives first on their own gets stepped. This drill teaches the chase as a line, from an onside start, and finishes with a two-handed touch, so it is a youth game as much as a drill.

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Time
12 minutes
Players
6 or more: a kicker, four chasers, a catcher and the catcher's support
Equipment
  • 8 cones for a 30-metre-wide channel, 40 metres long
  • 4 or 5 balls

Setup

  1. Mark a channel 30 metres wide and 40 metres long. The kicker starts at one end with four chasers spread across the channel behind them.
  2. A catcher stands near the far end, with a team-mate a few metres behind them.
  3. The kicker puts up a kick to the catcher. Nobody moves until the ball is kicked.
  4. The chasers sprint as one line and the kicker follows. The catcher runs the ball back at them.
  5. The chase line wins by touching the catcher or forcing them to pass backwards; the catcher wins by getting past the line.

Coaching points

  • Start behind the kicker. Anyone in front of them is offside when the ball is kicked.
  • Sprint up as a line, square across the channel, and look left and right to keep it.
  • Slow down and get square in the last few metres, so the catcher cannot step you.
  • The players at each end of the line stay wide, so the catcher has to go back inside to the chase.

On the run sheet: Start behind the kicker, chase as one line, arrive together, stay square and do not overrun the catcher

Progressions

  1. Replace the touch with a tag pull, or for age groups that tackle, a live tackle on the catcher.
  2. Give the catcher two team-mates, so the chase line has to defend a counter-attack.
  3. Let the kicker choose short or long, so the line has to react to the kick, not the call.

How it runs

The kicker kicks downfield to the catcher, and the four chasers, who started behind the kicker, sprint up the field together as one line, with the kicker following. The catcher runs the ball back at them and meets a line closing as one, square across the channel, with the players at the ends staying wide. With nowhere to run, the catcher passes back to their team-mate. That is the chase working. The animation draws the kick as a pass, because the canvas has no kicks, and ends with the catcher's pass.

Play it as two-handed touch and it is a non-contact game that the youngest groups enjoy. Some age-grade codes do not allow kicking in open play at the youngest ages, so check your union's rules and save the drill for the age groups that use it.

The law it is teaching

Law 10 makes any player in front of a team-mate who kicks offside. They are put onside when the kicker, or a team-mate who was behind the kicker when the ball was kicked, runs past them, and until then they must not move towards the ball and must not stay within 10 metres of where it is going to land. Starting every chaser behind the kicker makes the whole line onside on the kick, which is the habit worth building.

The mistakes to watch for

One chaser sprinting ahead of the rest, which the catcher simply steps. Chasers who arrive at full speed and run past the catcher. And players who start in front of the kicker and chase anyway, which in a match gives away a penalty for offside.

More rugby drills

Put Kick-chase line in Tuesday's session

It lands on your practice plan already timed, with the coaching cue printed under it, next to your own plays.

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Page updated · Rugby play designer · All drills

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