Roles and Set Plays

Overview

In this tenth lesson of the 18-lesson Touch Rugby Fitness and Game Sense unit, students develop game sense by connecting positional roles with attacking space. They learn the responsibilities of middles, links and wings, then apply crowding, the seven-metre rule and simple set plays through guided diagrams and small-sided play.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• identify the responsibilities of middles, links and wings
• explain how crowding affects attacking space and options
• understand and apply the seven-metre rule in a set-play context
• design and communicate a simple attacking set play
• predict how positional choices can create space for a teammate

Success criteria

• I can identify the roles of middles, links and wings.
• I can explain how crowding reduces space and attacking options.
• I can describe the seven-metre rule and use it when setting up.
• I can diagram and explain a suitable set play.

Curriculum links

• Personal and Social Capability: using strategies to prevent, defuse and resolve conflict within and between groups; students practise clear communication, cooperation and respectful decision-making.
• Health and Physical Education: analysing factors that influence responses and devising strategies to support self and others through change.
• Health and Physical Education: examining roles, decision-making and power within relationships; students consider equitable participation and shared responsibility.
• Health and Physical Education: applying assertive and respectful communication, including when seeking, giving or denying consent in physical activity settings.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook and safety briefing. Open with the opening game-sense question: “If every attacker runs towards the ball, where does the space go?” Establish the lesson goals, boundaries, no-contact expectations and the signals for stop, reset and rotate. Students complete a quick think-pair-share and identify one consequence of crowding.

2. 5–15 min · Roles and rules teaching. Use the roles and seven-metre rule diagrams to model a touch-rugby attack. Explain that the middle players organise the central attack and make forward progress, links connect the middle and edge and support passing decisions, and wings use width, communicate and finish attacking movements. Clarify that after a touch, the attacking team retreats and defenders must move back seven metres before play restarts; players should not deliberately crowd the ruck or restart area. Students use positional bibs and repeat the role descriptions to a partner, then demonstrate where each role would stand.

3. 15–25 min · Pair-and-share space investigation. Place students in pairs with a ball and cones marking a seven-metre line. Display the crowding comparison and distribute the roles and set-play planning sheet. Students sketch two attacking shapes: one crowded near the ball and one spread across the width. They label likely passing options and answer: “Which shape creates more time and space, and why?” Partners rehearse an explanation using the sentence frame, “When the attack…, the defence…, so the space…”.

4. 25–37 min · Teacher modelling and set-play design. Model a simple set play from a restart: the middle receives or organises the ball, one link runs a lead line to draw a defender and the opposite link or wing moves into the created space. Use cones and students as defenders, pausing to ask, “What does the defender have to choose?” Students work in groups of four or five to create their own set play, draw it on the worksheet, add arrows and label middle, links, wings, ball carrier and space. Each student must be able to explain one movement and one communication cue.

5. 37–52 min · Small-sided application. Set up two 5 v 5 games on reduced fields, with remaining students acting as rotating sideline coaches or referees before joining play. Revisit the set-play success checklist. Teams begin each attack with a nominated set play, then play freely for three touches. Award a bonus point when a team maintains width, respects the seven-metre retreat and creates a clear passing option. Rotate roles every three minutes. Coaches identify whether crowding occurred and suggest one adjustment; the teacher pauses play briefly for targeted feedback.

6. 52–60 min · Review and theory exit ticket. Bring students together for a quick debrief using the plenary questions. Students complete the final section of the exit-ticket questions independently: name the three roles, explain crowding, state the seven-metre rule and diagram a set play that creates space. Collect responses as students leave and remind them that effective game sense involves reading space, communicating respectfully and adapting decisions.

Resources

• the Roles and Set Plays teaching deck
• the roles and set-play planning sheet
• Positional bibs in three colours
• Touch rugby balls
• Cones and markers
• Whistle and stopwatch
• Two reduced-size playing areas
• Whiteboard and markers

Assessment

• Observe whether students can take up appropriate middle, link and wing positions, communicate and maintain the seven-metre retreat during small-sided play.
• Check pair diagrams and group explanations for accurate role labels, recognition of crowding and a logical relationship between movement and space.
• Use the exit ticket to assess individual understanding of the roles, crowding, the seven-metre rule and set-play design.

Differentiation

• Provide positional bibs, role cards, colour-coded cones and partially completed diagrams for students who need visual or organisational support.
• Offer verbal rehearsal, sentence starters and teacher modelling before students write; pair EAL learners with supportive peers and explicitly teach terms such as width, retreat, space, support and crowding.
• Reduce playing-area size, simplify the set play or allow a walking phase for students requiring modified physical participation; ensure safe spacing and predictable rotations.
• Extend confident students by requiring them to design a set play against a specified defensive pattern, such as a compressed defence, and explain how the attack would adapt if the first option was unavailable.