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Using Game Sense to Coach Your Team – Attack in the Midfield

About this session

This session uses the game sense approach: play a game, ask questions, then work on skills. The goal is to create a hole in the midfield and break through it.

Step 1: Play a game

  • Teams: two teams of 7 or 8 (attack and defence). If numbers are odd, the extra player goes to the attack.
  • Area: between the 22 and the try line, inside the 15m lines.
  • Start: from a scrum or ruck, with six players in the attack line and the rest with the halfback.
  • Aim: the attack must break through the centres without the ball carrier being touched. If they are tackled, keep the play going to score.
  • Give each team time to plan two plays, then try them.
  • To make it easier: defenders can only tackle in their own channel, or spread wider to open up space.

Step 2: Tactical feedback

Ask players what they saw and what they could do differently. Try these questions:

  • What can the playmaker do to open a hole? Change pace or angle, look at their defender, carry the ball in two hands, and take the ball flat enough to threaten.
  • What can the other attackers do? Drift and call for the ball, run at a drifting defender, change angle, and time their run so they look like a real option.
  • How can the penetrator find the hole? Stay out of sight for as long as possible, come from outside in, and time the run so they catch the ball in balance and accelerate.

The aim is to confuse the defence by giving them lots of problems at once. Then talk about keeping the play going after the break. Finally, have players choose a pattern with a couple of options and play it, reading the defence to pick the right one.

Step 3: Skills feedback

Ask players which skills they need to practise to make the play work. Ideas include:

  • Getting the depth and width of the attack line right.
  • Drawing defenders without the ball: running in and out of their vision, calling, showing hands, changing pace.
  • The playmaker creating space: moving out before the pass, stepping in on the pass, or a sudden change of pace or angle.

Practise these in small 3 v 3 games.

Example plays

Let players design their own plays first. If they need help, try these:

  • Play A: 10 and 12 run on a 45-degree angle. 13 cuts back inside 10, who dummies. 10 shapes to pass to 12 but pops to 15, coming in late between them. The wingers support 15 inside and out. 12 wraps around.
  • Play B: the same set-up, but 15 comes in earlier as a decoy and 10 passes across 15 to 12, running in balance. 15 wraps hard outside.

The key question for every play: what does each player have to do to create space where we want to break? The same ideas work in phase play, with forwards like 6 and 8 in place of 13 and 15.