Rugby: The Saddle Roll Technique

• tackle sausage 

Place 2 sausages perpendicular from eachother in a T shape. 

Have one player line up a couple meters away from the bag. 

Conditioning drill, the player does reps of clearing the bag, running back to the line, doing a down up and going again. 

Defenders must use two hands to tag the ball carrier and have the body position as if performing a tackle

Once tagged the ball carrier goes to ground in a strong position and places the ball long.

The defender holds a position over the ball carrier. The next closest defender performs a push up along side the tackle.

One player from the attacking team must ‘win’ the ball by positioning themselves strongly over the ball carrier and in a position to clean out. A halfback can clear the ball to continue the attack.

• 2 on 2 tackling and clear out game.
• Players line up in two lines, adjacent to the coned gameplay area.
• The coach stands opposite the two lines with the ball and passes to the front player of either team.
• The front two players of each team run round the back of their cones and the ball carrier takes the ball into contact.
• The two secondary players then ruck over and attempt to clear each other out.
• One team comes away with the ball.

• Progressive exercises to improve clearing out at the ruck
• Lay a tackle tube on the floor with another tube on top, angled into the air, with a ball on the floor in front of the first tube
• CLEAR: The player starts lying flat on the ground in a press up position, before angling their run and tackling the top tube
• ROLL: Same set up, but the tube is tiled the opposite direction. The player runs round and wraps their arms round the tube before rolling away to the right with the momentum of their run.