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Quote: Seth "The drill in itself is bad enough, my bigger issue is with coaching things in relays, queues of 18 kids and only touching the ball once every 5 minutes. A good reality check would be for someone to focus on say 2 kids throughout an hours training session then report back on the number of minutes out of the 60 that those children were actively engaged (touching the ball) for.

Unfortunately with all the coach education many coaches don't have the patience to see it through or even buy into the principles in the first place. Their weekend (and ego) lives or dies on whether their u10s won, and if they didn't the players 'will get it in the neck'. Theres another principle that's unfortunately not adhered to; as a coach if things arent going right with your team, reflect with complete honestly about your practice and strive to provide an environment in which the players can reach their potential.'"

I coached juniors for 10 years and firmly believe that 'mini rugby' should be all about fun and involvement where skills and decision making abilities are encouraged by starting out with small sided games (eg 4 against 4 which increases with each age group) with less emphasis on structure and keeping the rules simple. I do not think that leagues or cup matches should be allowed before say U/13s. This way basic and more advanced skills are learnt without the pressure of failure in an important match. I say this despite having coached an U12 junior side to a Yorkshire Final Cup win.