Taking the restart without losing the ball
Rugby · Set piece · 15 of your players
A kick-off is the one moment both teams are set and only one of them has practised. This is the receive drawn properly: eight forwards in position and two players covering the deep kick.
Opens on a rugby pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
Where the fifteen stand at the restart
Eight forwards form the front of the receive: a pod of three on the left between about 10 m and 18 m across, a pod of three on the right between 52 m and 60 m, and a pair either side of the middle. All of them stand 8 m to 10 m back from halfway, which is the distance that matters — the ball has to travel 10 m, so anybody closer is standing in the place the kick is not allowed to land.
The halves are ahead of the pods, not behind them: the scrum-half in the middle and the fly-half to the right, both within 5 m of halfway, so a short kick along the ground has somebody on it. The two wings hold the touchlines a little deeper. Then the two players who decide whether this goes well — the outside centre 15 m off halfway and the fullback deepest of all, standing just the far side of your own 22 for the long kick to the corner.
Choosing this receive
It is the balanced default: three lifting groups' worth of forwards for the contested ball, real cover for the drop-out length kick, and enough bodies near halfway to compete for a dribbler. Use it when you do not know what the opposition kicker does, or when they have shown you two different restarts already.
Adjust it once you do know. A team that hangs every kick on the 15 m line wants a pod shifted wide and the outside centre pushed up. A team that drills the long spiral to the corner wants the wing on that side dropped level with the fullback and one forward moved across to fill the gap.
Coaching points that survive contact
- Call the pod, then the catcher. Mark the receiving pod and the lifters and animate the ball into that spot, so the group taking the ball is decided before the whistle.
- First arriving forward has a job. Draw the run from the nearest pod to the catch, not to the ball — the difference is the ruck you either win or lose.
- Somebody talks to the fullback. Show the corridor between the wing and the fullback and put a name on it.
Pull this template up in the designer, move the pods to suit your kicker's opposite number, and animate the catch and the first carry as one sequence.
Also known as
- kick off
- restart
- receive
- pods
- back field
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Put the Kick-off receive on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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