As a new rugby player (who hopes to coach someday), I agree that doing drills that are too divorced from the game can be less helpful. Another frustrating part is overcomplicated drills where not only am I trying to remember the fundamental rugby steps in passing, tackling, etc, I’m also trying to remember all the different rules of a drill which makes it hard to focus on the rugby skills I’m trying to practice. I prefer simpler drills and if you want to have new(er) players work on thinking of multiple things at once, then try realistic game situations (like touch games) where the extra things are more applicable to rugby games (positioning, support, strategy, etc). It helps to have at least 1-2 veteran players to be vocal leaders to help direct newer players in game like situations as well (this helped me a lot in my first touch games).
As a new rugby player (who hopes to coach someday), I agree that doing drills that are too divorced from the game can be less helpful. Another frustrating part is overcomplicated drills where not only am I trying to remember the fundamental rugby steps in passing, tackling, etc, I’m also trying to remember all the different rules of a drill which makes it hard to focus on the rugby skills I’m trying to practice. I prefer simpler drills and if you want to have new(er) players work on thinking of multiple things at once, then try realistic game situations (like touch games) where the extra things are more applicable to rugby games (positioning, support, strategy, etc). It helps to have at least 1-2 veteran players to be vocal leaders to help direct newer players in game like situations as well (this helped me a lot in my first touch games).