Pile the pressure on 10 by making him think

Start putting more pressure on your fly half (10) in training so he can perform better on match days. You can also work all the players who might fulfil this role.

Pile the pressure on 10 by making him think

There are three main ways to create pressure:

  1. Reduce the time for the player to make decisions.
  2. Reduce the space for the player to make decisions.
  3. Work when the player is tired.

You can then introduce a fourth, more match related way – give the 10 lots of decisions to make. Set up a 30m square. Put three defenders about 15m inside it, with a feeder at the side (see the picture).

Have a 10 and three attackers line up inside the square. The ball is passed to the 10, who has to release one of the players with a switch pass, miss pass, inside pass, a short pass or a chip kick. He can even run himself.

Initially, the 10 will want to call a set move, where the receiver is predetermined.

You might also want to run through the options without the defence. As the 10 becomes more comfortable, put him and five numbered attackers at the side of the box (with the feeder and defenders still in place).

Now shout out which players will attack with 10.

Give them a countdown from say 10, seven or five seconds to get into position, before the feeder passes out the ball.

Now, 10 has more decisions to make. Finally, start conditioning the defence with a mix of backs and forwards as defenders (mismatches) and types of defence to run (e.g. blitz). Playing through this 10 times will add a fatigue element, increasing pressure on the 10 and the players around him.


  • 10s need to be put under pressure in training: Space, time and fatigue.
  • 10 is a decision maker, which is an added pressure, so give him lots of decisions to make.
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