Recruiters watch highlight reels the way you check your phone: thumb hovering, ready to leave. Analytics from recruitment platforms are consistent — if the first thirty seconds don't hold, the rest never gets seen. Build your reel around that single fact — the same player-first principle World Rugby applies across its own player development resources.

The structure that works

  1. 0:00–0:05 — title card: name, position, age, height/weight, club, jersey number and colour. Five seconds, no music drop, no montage intro.
  2. 0:05–0:45 — your three best moments. Not chronological. Best first. This section decides whether the rest gets watched.
  3. 0:45–2:30 — themed evidence: group clips by what they prove (carrying, tackling, set piece, kicking, decision-making) rather than by match.
  4. 2:30–3:00 — engine clips: one or two efforts from late in matches — a 70th-minute chase says more than a first-half step.
Hard rules: under three minutes total. Your player highlighted with a simple circle or arrow at the start of every clip. Each clip starts two seconds before the action and ends when the action ends. No slow motion except one replay of your single best moment.

What scouts skip (so cut it)

  • Montage intros with music builds — instant credibility tax.
  • Clips where they can't find you. If you need ten seconds to locate yourself, delete it.
  • Padding: routine passes, easy tackles on smaller players, tries scored from two metres against poor defence.
  • Anything over three months of the same skill — three great carries prove the point; nine dilute it.

Filming and technical settings

Height beats proximity: film from an elevated position at halfway, wide enough to show the play developing — scouts read your positioning, not just your action. 1080p at 30fps minimum; a modern phone on a tripod is perfectly adequate. Keep original files — clubs sometimes request raw footage, and re-exported compressed video looks worse every generation.

Music, or not

If in doubt, none. Many recruiters watch muted at their desk. If you use music, keep it low-energy and copyright-safe — a reel that gets muted or blocked on a platform for audio rights has failed at its only job.

The full-match rule

Every serious enquiry follows the same script: "Good reel — send us a full match." Have two recent full games ready to share the same day. The reel opens the door; the full eighty is what walks you through it.

Get Seen By The Clubs That Matter

Build your verified rugby CV — combine stats, highlight video and eligibility — free in under 10 minutes.

Build My CV