Match Fitness drill
Seven v Four Overload Game
Maximise acceleration and deceleration load, which is the demand that outnumbers sprinting in every position.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Players
- 11 to 22 players
- Intensity
- High
- Equipment
- Ball, cones
- Space
- 20m x 20m grid
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
A tight 20m x 20m grid marked with cones, roughly 400 square metres. Seven attackers against four defenders, and a ball.
How to run it
- Play one-touch rugby in the small grid, with seven attackers against four defenders so the attack always has an overload to exploit.
- On every touch the ball is tapped immediately on the mark and the defenders must scramble to reorganise against the extra numbers.
- Play bouts of 90 seconds to under 3 minutes with a minute between them, for 3 to 6 bouts, rotating who defends.
- This format produces the lowest top speeds of any conditioning game but by far the highest acceleration and deceleration load, so reach for it when accelerations are what you actually want to train.
Coaching cues
- One touch, immediate tap on the mark
- Defence scrambles - never set and wait
- This is an acceleration game, not a speed game
Common mistakes
- Playing it on too big a grid, which turns it into a running game and loses the acceleration density entirely
- Never rotating the defenders, who carry by far the heaviest load
Related drills
- Worst-Case Passage BlockPrepare for the longest, hardest passages of a match rather than the comfortable average.
- Ball-in-Play Passage RunsTrain the exact work and rest shape of a real ball-in-play passage, on your own with a ball.
- RHIE Bout CircuitReplicate the repeated high-intensity effort bouts that decide matches, solo and with no contact kit.
- Tackle Bag RHIE ProtocolTrain repeated sprint-and-collide efforts, which is what separates rugby conditioning from running fitness.
- Rugby Contact CircuitCondition the wrestle, drive and get-up qualities that no amount of running will build.
- Four v Four Conditioning GameReach high running intensity and near-maximum speed inside a game, which full-sided rugby never does.