These are IRL games I designed during my years as a rugby trainer for children between 5 and 12. That age group learns rugby mostly through the use of minigames, as they get bored quickly just doing exercises. Each game is designed to teach a specific skill.
Simple name game
This is a game I designed when the team of 5–7-year-olds I was giving rugby training to suddenly grew a lot. The children lost track of the names of all the new kids, which meant they couldn’t communicate properly during a rugby match. This game lets them focus on learning the names while being active. Even if only one kid knows the name that gets called, the ones that don’t know the name will follow them and learn the name that way. After a couple rounds, they knew most of the names.
Advanced name game
This game is an extension of the simple version. The youth categories 8-10 and 10-12 got bored quickly with the simple version, but they needed a way to learn their teammates names too. Combining that with teaching them to ask for the ball and the necessity to constantly let them practice throwing the ball during their younger years, I came up with this more dynamic version. It also teaches them to always pay attention to what their opponent is doing and where the ball is. The 5–7-year-olds can also play it once they know the names a bit better.
Rugby Dodgeball
This is a rugby version of dodgeball. I made it as another way to get kids throwing the ball as much as possible while keeping them entertained. The first iteration of this game only had the soft ball and didn’t inspire a lot of teamwork outside of cornering people with the teammates in the backfield.
Adding the normal rugby balls meant they had to pay closer attention to their surroundings (what ball is being thrown at me?) and gave them a reason to collaborate more; the hit shields must always be guarded now.
This also meant that the best offense tactic is to throw the soft ball at the ‘guard’ and then throw the normal balls at the now unguarded hit shield. Once they realised this, they really started to work as a team.
