Attack learning through pitch shapes

This game and subsequent development are great for getting players to respond to changing space on the wings. It helps work on support play and loops in attack and rewards a push defence.

1. Set up a large triangle. Depending on the level of your players your triangle might need to be very large to enable players to see the space easier.
2. Split a group into 4v4.
3. Defenders start on the wide flat.
4. Attackers on the point line up behind each other.

1. The more the attacking team move forward, the more space they unlock.
2. The attackers aim to score on the try line, the defenders aim to push them back to having less space.
3. At the points of the triangle, you can use different coloured cones to create a red zone to help attackers try and escape the red zone quickly to unlock more space and to create a goal for the defenders to push the attackers back to the red zone.

1. Add in a second triangle and remove the middle line to create a parallelogram.
2. This space is now the side of a standard touch grid, however, the space on the wing will swap sides.
3. Due to the change in space, add in at least two more players to make 5v5
4. Play a standard game of touch.
5. This forces players to loop in attack or drift across in defence to cover and exploit space.

TECHNIQUES

• Defensive pressure
• Looping in attack
• Use of the wings

NOTES

This game is great to help players exploit space and to give supporting attackers opportunity. Initially, when I tried this I made the space of the game-area a little too small. I would be to make the space large to begin with and then assess whether to make it smaller each time you run the game.

The development of the parallelogram is a good way to get players to think about how to use space on the wing and how to get players to move into more space as a supporting attacker.