The reality is that the best players don't do a lot of passing in the earlier ages of junior rugby.
The rest of the team generally works on the principle of passing the ball to that player and then that player runs around and through the opposition to score a try.
Maybe we need more late bloomers who spent their junior rugby passing to others and only became a star player when they were a bit older.
In order to pass it to the best player, they need to be able to pass. By U10s, kids definitely have game awareness - even if the central aim of boys is still to score themselves (I find girls become more team orientated earlier - no real surprise there).
Passing is all mechanics. We had a lot of success improving the ball skills of our senior club last year through constant, repitive passing - paying strict attention to proper technique.
At the other end of the scale, my daughters touch team have been working on ball skills since U8s. They used to get belted then because they were all passing, but not running on to the ball or going forward. Now (in U10s) they are winning lots of games comfortably, partly because most of them now pass to space. They are also starting to run at holes & draw pass.
Kids can do a lot more than we give them credit for sometimes. How often have you seen pictures of Tiger Woods hitting golf shots with great technique when he was 3-4.
