Week 1 - Try Rugby Sevens

Skill focus: Running with the ball, evasion, tag defence, kicking, scoring a try and lineouts

Session equipment

1 football (or similar) per pair of students
40 markers
Bibs/braids to differentiate teams

Download Try Rugby Sevens - Week 1 task card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

Fast start - Defensive demons

Equipment

8 markers
1 football (or similar) per student

How to play

Students work in pairs, one is the designated attacker and the other is the defender.
Both students start one metre apart and facing each other.
When a nominated player says ‘go’ (players take turns), the attacker must attempt to get past the defender without being tagged to score a point.
Allow 30 seconds, then players swap roles.

CHANGE it!

Introduce a ball to each pair once students are familiar with the game.
Both students start one metre apart and facing each other.
When a nominated player says ‘go’ (players take turns), the attacker must attempt to run with the ball past the defender without the defender touching them.
Allow 30 seconds, then players swap roles

Select the card to download.

Skill development games

Choosing teams

In a sport education approach, affiliation is promoted by students being a member of the same team over a period of time. It is intended that students remain in these teams for the duration of each sport unit for the skill development and the modified small-sided games, so that they can develop and learn together.

Place students in equal teams, 4 teams is optimal, at the beginning of the skill development session. Strategies for forming groups can be found in the Game-based learning in sport and physical activity e-learning course.
To further promote affiliation students can decide on a team name.
Once the teams are determined you can add the team and student names to the Try Rugby Sevens draw template.

Activity 1 - Back to back passes

Equipment: 1 football per pair

How to play: In pairs, players experiment with different ways to pass the football to each other while standing back-to-back.

Organise players into pairs, with a ball, standing back-to-back.
On your signal, pairs experiment with different ways to pass the ball.
Once the signal ‘Stop!’ is given, pairs volunteer to demonstrate their ideas.
After exploration of ideas, set a time limit for pairs to pass their ball in nominated ways.

Activity 2 - Super boot

Equipment: 1 football per player, marker cones

How to play: Players score points by kicking over lines or at targets in a defined area. Play in groups of 4.

Organise players into groups parallel to each other facing the field.
Call ‘Kick!’ and one or two players in each group kick the ball into the playing area.
Players score their kick based on which line it lands over.
The remaining players in each group kick their balls and note their score.
In mixed ability groups, more able players must kick further to achieve the same points as other players.
Call ‘Collect!’ to instruct all players to collect their ball and the next round begins after all team members are behind the starting line

Activity 3 - Round the bend

Equipment: 9 footballs, marker cones to define the playing area

How to play: Players carrying a football each attempt to score points by running over the try line without being tagged. Play in groups of 12 or more.

On your signal, three ball carriers and one defender enter from opposite ends of the playing area.
The defender aims to perform a rugby tag on one or more of the ball carriers while the ball carriers try to score a try.
Five points = score a try by grounding the ball on or over the try line.
One point = carry the ball over the try line.
Change defending and attacking players regularly

CHANGE It!

Play with three ball carriers and two defenders.
Only one attacking player has the ball and must turn and pass it to a team-mate when tagged with two hands by a defender.

Activity 4 - Line out throw

Equipment: 1 football per pair of players, marker cones

How to play: Pairs throw a football overhead to each other and step backwards if they catch it on the full. When ‘Time!’ is called, the pair who is the greatest distance apart wins.

Organise players into pairs with one ball per pair.
Pairs face each other five metres apart and parallel to other pairs.
On ‘Go!’, players pass the ball back and forth to their partner using a two-handed overhead throw.
If the ball reaches the catcher on the full, both players take one step backwards.
If the catch is dropped, both take a step forward.
When ‘Time!’ is called, the pair who is the greatest distance apart wins.

Modified small-sided games

It's time for competition!

Teams compete against each other in the game outlined below. You can use the 'Try Rugby Sevens draw' as a guide to organise the competition, across the 4 sessions try to ensure each team has a fair number of games.

Allocate 3 points for a win, 2 points for a drawer and 1 point for a loss for each game played. Record results and points in the School sport program results spreadsheet.

Remember, to give students an update of the leader board each week.

Game - Guard the castle

Equipment: 15 footballs, 8 marker cones (4 colours)

How to play: Guards in a line move sideways as they try to protect the castle from invasion. Invaders attempt to slip through gaps in the guards’ defence to leave as many footballs as they can inside the castle within 5 minutes.

Organise players into even teams of invaders and castle guards.
The castle guards stand three metres apart and can only move sideways on their line.
The invaders have two minutes to attempt to get past the guards and into the castle without being touched.
Once in the castle, the invader places their football on the ground then returns to their position around the boundary lines to collect a new ball.
The guards attempt to effect a 2 two handed touch on the invaders to send them to the dungeon.
To be released from the dungeon, invaders must throw their ball in the air, clap and catch it five times, then return to their starting position.
When ‘Time!’ is called, the invaders add up how many balls they left in the castle.
Once both teams have had a turn as invaders, the team with the highest score of balls in the castle wins.