Kick-offs: So you think sevens rugby restarts are easy?

It is a well-known mantra on the HSBC SVNS Series that, ‘whoever controls the kick-offs, controls the scoreboard’.

Kick-offs are the most common set piece in sevens rugby. When a team scores a try, they restart the game by kicking off. This is different to 15-a-side rugby, in which the scoring team receives the kick-off. 

This is why kick-offs are so important and why teams will have weekly training sessions dedicated to regaining the ball from a restart.

Looking at the HSBC SVNS Series standings as the circus heads to Perth for the third tournament of the season, the teams that win more kick-offs when kicking and receiving, are likely to be higher up the table.

In recent years, Argentina men have set themselves apart from every other team thanks to their success at restarts. At the Tokyo Olympics, their restart success rate was 59 percent, compared to the tournament average of 29 percent. This helped them climb from a 6th place finish at Rio 2016 to a bronze medal in Japan.

They have maintained this form in recent seasons and are consistently one of the top kick-off teams, which has helped them win several tournaments and saw them finish at the top of the series standings for the 2023-24 season.

There are three key components to any team’s kick-off plan: the kick; the compete; and the clean-up.

The Kick

A drop-kick – so called because a player kicks the ball after they have dropped it and let it bounce off the floor – is the way sevens rugby games are restarted. The ball must travel forward past the ten-metre line to be considered in play. For me, this is the hardest skill to learn in rugby and takes years to master.

Kick-offs can be divided into two categories: contestable and non-contestable.

For contestable kicks, the kicker will aim to put the ball as close to the ten-metre line so chasers on their side have a chance to win it back. 

They can choose to kick a small dink, with the emphasis on a well-timed run from the chaser, while not giving the receiving team time to react. Or they can choose to kick the ball higher, which is harder for the receiving team to catch, while also allowing time for more chasers to reach the area where the ball lands.

Non-contestable kicks are longer, and are intended to pin the receiving team deep in their half, forcing them to play out. South Africa have, perhaps, been the best exponents of this form of restart in recent years.

The Compete

There is an old saying in rugby that a kick is only as good as its chase. This is particularly true for restarts in sevens.

Most teams will have three to five specialist chasers. They understand their kicker’s routine, so they can time their runs and maximise their chance of regaining the ball.

Teams generally divide the pitch into four to six areas that the kicker will aim for; this ensures everyone knows where the kick is going. For example, a number ‘3’ could mean that the kick is going up the middle, while a number ‘1’ indicates the kick will go left and is intended to come down about five metres from the touchline.

Generally, the team kicking off will set their chasers up in a ‘stacked’ or ‘split’ pattern. A stacked pattern is when the majority of the chasers are on one side of the kicker. 

This reduces the number of kicking options but puts more chasers into the competing area. A split pattern is when the chasers are evenly split on either side of the kicker. This pattern is more commonly seen in modern sevens.

The receiving team, meanwhile, will be set up on their side of the pitch in a combination of pods and singles. A pod consists of two players, a lifter and a jumper. 

The aim is to lift a player as high as possible so they can catch the ball cleanly. The singles are often the team’s best chasers who are good at jumping and competing for the ball. A team can create many combinations of pods and singles to present a different challenge to the team kicking off.

The Clean Up

Ideally, whether you’re kicking or receiving, you want the ball to be caught cleanly so your team can start attacking straight away. However, at the international level, kick-offs are extremely competitive with the ball often being tapped back to one side.

When the ball is in the air, both teams will try to position their players around the compete area. The idea is to be the first person to the ball as it comes down.

Teams will analyse their opponents to understand their favourite kicks, best chasers and preferred set-ups for receiving. As a result, kick-offs have become a game within the game.

The standard of kicking is constantly improving and evolving, with every team trying to find an advantage over the others.

Canada’s Nate Hirayama was one of the trailblazers for being able to restart with both feet. This gives the receiving team no indication of which way the ball was going until the very last second. I believe we will see more players developing this ability as it’s such a strong asset.

If you’d like to see some of the best kickers in the world in action, then tune in to the HSBC SVNS action in Perth this weekend.