Rugby | Rugby Drills

Make sure your warm-up area is marked out before the players arrive. Depending on the number of players you have at training, mark out several warm-up grids. The size of your grid is a suggestion, but around 10 meters x 10 meters. The bigger the grid, the easier it is for the attackers - they have more space. The smaller the grid, the easier it is for the defenders. Break your players into two groups, pads and passers. One third of your players will be passers; the rest will be on the pads. Have one team quickly demonstrate the game to the other players. In each grid have four players on pads, and two passers. You could have more passers; I'll leave this to your judgment. The job of the players on the pads is to put pressure on the ball carrier, to surround them and stop them from passing the ball. The players on the pads are also trying to force the passers to make mistakes e.g. drop the ball, throw a bad pass etc. The passers have to move the ball around the grid, avoiding the pads. Passers can pass the ball in any direction. Players on the pads should have a little fun, and within reason push the passers around a little. You can award points for each successful pass, and points to the defending team on the pads for every occasion when a ball carrier is surrounded or the ball carriers make a mistake. Don't forget to change the players around, and to give players on the pads a go at passing the ball under pressure. Law Variations: You could insist that passers have only 3 second to make their pass, or risk losing a point to the defending team.

Within a group there are two groups of 4 attackers and one chaser/scrum half. At the middle point, marked by a cones, the scrum half moves the ball to the first attacking line. The scrum half firstly tracks the progress of the ball, as the exercise progresses - the scrum half should apply more and more pressure to the ball carrier - working up to the point of becoming a full on defender. When the ball reaches the opposite end of the grid, the last player in the line sets the ball down. The scrum half then feeds the ball to the next attacking line, fulfilling their own role within the exercise. The opposite attacking line should realign in preparation for the next attack. The tempo of this exercise should be high.

Brief your players, but keep it brief! In each grid there will not be two channels. In each of the two channels there are two players with a tackle bag and two players binding with their back to the runner. The players binding will be leaning/driving against a tackle shield (similar to how they would be during a maul). The shield will provide support and resistance just before and during the runners hit. The first player starts and runs to the player with the tackle bag and makes a tackle before moving on. After the 2nd tackle they runs to bind with the 2 players and drives them across the line, their bind should result in their head between the hips of the two players in front of him and his shoulders in contact with the from two players backsides. The players driving position should be low and the hit proportionate. When the 3 players cross the line, one of the 2 binding players takes over and continues to run up the other channel, with the first running player now binding with the other remaining player and taking up a driving position against the shield. Change players around to ensure that every player has an opportunity to play different roles.

Make sure that your players are holding their tackle shields correctly! Have your players work in groups of 10, adjust depending on your own training goals. Have more than one activity area in order to keep your players moving, standing around watching is not training. If you find that you don't have enough equipment, then have the other groups undertake a different activity. Keep your activity briefing, brief. Give 8 players a tackle shield each, they should form a circle, with around a meter of space (or less) between shields. 2 players in the middle, one of the player with a ball. The ball carrier has to run into contact with one of the outside player and turn to give the ball to the 2nd player in the middle who has to provide close support. On being given the ball the new ball carrier has to run into contact with another player holding a shield, the previous ball carrier is now the support player. The two players in the middle must operate at a high tempo for a preset period of time as defined by the coach. Players can rip and roll, provide and take a pop, provide and take a pass, fall and present, fall and pop, and drive and present on their hip. Contact should last no more than three seconds, keep the tempo high! Change the players in the middle of the circle.

Groups of 15 Ball  Bags   Groups of 3 on all sides of the grid, with 2 defenders in the middle. Players attack 2 defenders trying to beat them with fixing them and footwork.  Offload when got through to any of other teams.  Continuous drill to score as many tries as possibel in 1 min.   

Groups 9+  Ball Cones This could be perfect fro a warm up drill.  Player with the ball runs to first cone and performs a pull back pass to the second receiver then onto the 3rd. When the ball reaches the third the 3rd reciver runs to the cone and performs a pull back pass back inside the the 2nd reciver in the next line.  This is continuus and should be short and fast pase.

This drill will develop your players ability to regather difficult balls and make offloads.  Working in groups of three, one player is practicing the skill at a time.  The practicing player throws the ball to two other players who are holding balls. These two players bounce the ball back and the practicing player has to gather the ball without knocking it on. Progression   Now the practicing player holds two balls. He has to offload and then regather the ball with one hand.

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Set a grid to attack. Defenders and attackers begin on the touchline in the centre. Both leave at the same time and run around appointed cones, ball carrier should accelerate up towards defender channeling them however they want realising that they have two other support runners for different options to run in and score.

Lets get the ball and the players moving with lateral passing through the hands. Each training area only needs one ball, and that ball should start with the any of the two players at the very ends of the L. Tell players to move forward, passing the ball down the line. When the ball gets to the last receiver, that player will pass it to the first receiver in the next line that is waiting to go. They should advance right away. Allow the players to simply move the ball down the line.

Set a narrow grid to attack. Defenders and attackers begin on the touchline in the centre. Both leave at the same time and run around appointed cones, ball carrier should accelerate up towards inside shoulder of defender to draw in and then pass to the support runner coming from depth who can run in and score.

Call for the ball! Head and eyes up looking at the ball, get in line with the ball. Quickly move to the ball's 'drop zone' Adjust position to get under ball, hands up and ready to take ball Turn the body to protect during contact and also to avoid a potential knock on if dropped ball Raise one knee to protect yourself from any potential contact (Note: it's illegal to be tackled in the air). As you land on your feet brace yourself for contact.

3 players, 1 ball, 1 pad. Player with the ball throws up the ball for the player without the pad to run up to jump and catch while the player with the pad puts on the pressure.

6x6m Grid  Ball  Players line up in 3s opposite sides of the grid.  Simply pass the ball along the line.  1 defender is in the middle of the grid putting pressure on all ball carriers. Once hand completed the next line starts immediately.  Defender swaps out when there is a mistake or when he touches someone with the ball.  Progression: add another defender, make the passes wider. 

4 + groups  Balls  All players have a ball, start by passing the ball once left then twice right, then 3 times left etc.  if the ball goes down you start again.  Winning team is the team who competes the most amount of passes without the ball going down. 

Use the diagram in order to think about the starting position of your players, I suggest that they are not too deep for this one. 10 passes the ball to 12. 11 loops behind 12. 12 advances with the ball. 12 pass the ball to 11, this should be a close to the defensive line as possible. 13 runs a line, at speed, close the space between them and 11. 11 does their best to avoid contact, but if they do take contact, they should attempt to off-load to 13.