Rugby: pre contact

Players sit back to back, arms interlocked and knees bent. The coach says left or right. The players must battle to pull their partner to the floor on the said side.

Players sit back to back, arms interlocked and knees bent. The coach says left or right. The players must battle to pull their partner to the floor on the said side.

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.

Building a 3 person front row. Hooker forms 1st, standing with shoulders lowered and knees bent to about 3/4 height. Arms up in the air in a 'flying' position. Props then bind underneath the hookers arms, with their inside arms around the back of the hooker.

<b>Setup:</b> Set up with 4 players with pads, and four players facing them about five metres away. There should be enough space between the players to ensure that they and the players making the hit are safe. The rest of the players fall in behind the leading 4 players who will be making the first hit. Each group of four will go together. The players holding the pads should do so with one hand on each strap, not with one arm through both straps as this exposes them to a lower arm fracture on a big hit. Have more than one group if necessary, as you don't want to have players waiting for more than 20-30 seconds between hits. Start slowly to get the technique right, and build from there. Tell the hitting players to put their hands behind their backs and make a hit on the pad using their shoulder. Remind them to keep their head up and to place their head to the side of the pads. Demo this with another coach if necessary.

One group starts with the ball.Player with the ball forwards towards the player with the pad.The player hits pad with their right shoulder and ?pops? the ball off to the 1st player in the other group, who is running to receive the ball.The next player hits pad with their left shoulder and ?pops? the ball off to the next player form the other group, who is running to receive the ball.Drill continues until all players have carried out the drill from both sides.

Keep your player briefing, brief! Tell you players the following...... Players will attack in groups of 2, so we have 2 v 1's. That's it - get them moving for a while - and remind the defenders that they can only move from side to side. After a while - tell the attackers that the ball carrier must take contact - and pass the ball out of contact. That's it - get the players moving again and let them discover how it's done. Don't forget to change the defenders.

Groups of 3/41 Tackle Sausage.1 Tackle bag. 1. Tackle Bag conditioning.Players align 6m apart, one side with tackle sausage. Work for 1 min constantly tackling and carrying sausage back and forth with partners. 2. Tackle and Roll conditioning. Same as before but introduce roll after making the hit. Roll with bag to escpae collision area. then same as before, pick up the sausage and run.3. Add DefenderA 3rd player is introduced, holding Tackle bag who acts as a attacker clearing out the ruck. The Defender must bounce up and clear the tackle bag player coming over the ball, then same as before. 4. Tackle, Roll, Clear All 4 stages togther now, adding a roll in before clearing out the attakcing player with tackle bag.

Players 3m apart – slightly crouched One of pair nominated as tackler On balls of feet, with feet shoulder width apart the coach calls either Right or Left.

Pass gets given to the attacker who has to run down the grid. When the tackle comes in the player with the ball has to present the ball. Tackler has to get to feet quickly to get the ball and pass it back the the initial passer of the practice . Next two player go. After each go the players swap sides.

Players stand in a inner circle and have an outer circle 5m behind them. 2 players in the middle. one player passes the ball to one of the outside players. The other central player runs at the player with the ball rips the ball off the player and presents the ball to the original passer. This player then passes the ball to another player in the circle and the practice repeats it self.

Groups of 2BagsBallsContact conditioning 1. Body height clear out workIn there groups, do contact hits on each shoulder. Stand 2m apart and take turns doing hits against bag2. Crocodile roleOne player lies on top of a tackle sausage (long way round), the group of 4 take turns swapping roles of being tackled and tackler. Focus is the crocodile role.3. Clear out.One player stands over the top of tackle bag competing for the ball. Other player arrives from 2m away to clear out the player, to prevent the threat of stealing the ball.3. Bounce and competePlayers lay either side of the a ball. When whistle goes, both players bounce off the floor, one competes for the ball while the other focuses on clear out or crocodile role.Do 3 sets of 2mins. Repetitive drill.

In pairs, one player starts on their knees. The other player runs towards one shoulder, the tackler makes contacts with their shoulder, puts head on the right side and wraps around to make the tackle.

<b>Setup:</b> Set up with 4 players with pads, and four players facing them about five metres away. There should be enough space between the players to ensure that they and the players making the hit are safe. The rest of the players fall in behind the leading 4 players who will be making the first hit. Each group of four will go together. The players holding the pads should do so with one hand on each strap, not with one arm through both straps as this exposes them to a lower arm fracture on a big hit. Have more than one group if necessary, as you don't want to have players waiting for more than 20-30 seconds between hits. Start slowly to get the technique right, and build from there. Tell the hitting players to raise their elbows 90 degrees or more. They will notice that their shoulders get bigger. Demo this with another coach if necessary.

This is a great warm-up for defensive and evasion sessions, or it might even be a warm-up that helps you reinforce coaching points made during a previous session. The best bit is that it's fun and relevant to all ages. If you're coaching tag rugby, change the warm-up exercise from contact to tags. One team runs clockwise round the inside of the circle with the other team running anti-clockwise around the outside of the circle. The circle in this case is marked out using blue cones, but you can use whatever colour you like. When the coach shouts 'Jailbreak' the players inside the inner circle try to 'escape' to outside the 10m x 10m square (yellow cones). The size of the square and distance from the circle is a suggestion, play with it a little and let us know your variations! The inside team scores a point for each 'jailbreaker' - swap over. If you have an odd number of players give the defenders the extra man.

4 players + cones ball. Cones laid out on 5m chanel other 10 chanel. 3 Players line up passing ball up and down the line, when coach says now they pass it to the player stood opposite in the 5m chanel. The player then attacks down the 5m chanel. The player opposite makes a chop tackle, bounces and competes. for the ball. (Tackler becomes clearer).The 2 other players then try to clear the player off the ball. Decinign whether to fire or steal ball depedning of spped of clearer off the floor.

1. Crocodile roll Crocodile roll is one technique to repmove threats from a breakdown.Most useful for smaller players to move larger ones. Require control, power, accuracy.Identify if croc roll is the right technique to use. Target the defenders upperback/lower neck region. Initate the clear out by big shoulder contact into that area, set feet wide, then bearhug the defender Use momentum and rotate hips downwards, maintain strong grip and roll palyer off the ball. Finish movement on top of player and compete for ball. 2. Smash If player is slow to attack ball smash may be the best option.Here clear the defender out the way and remove the threat using normal rucking technique.

Players start in a bear crawl position with a cone on their back. They should crawl 5-10 metres forwards and then back whilst keeping the cone stable. Focus on staying low in a strong body position, perfect to warm up for tackling.

Players stand 5 metres apart, only the attacking player moves in this drill, the tackler remains still as their partner approaches. As the player gets close the tackler should keep their head up and engage the runner with either their left or right shoulder. Holding around their knees tightly and driving with their shoulder they should allow the player to fall over their shoulder to floor.

Drill to practice making multiple tackles in a period of time.Set up a circle of 6 cones with a padman opposite each cone (between 2m and 5m away).Players starts on a cone in the centre of the drill (as pictured) and run forward to tackle the padman. On completing the tackle they run back to the centre of the drill and move clockwise to the next cone. On the coache's call they run forward to tackle the next padman, returning to the centre of the drill after completing the tackle and move clockwise to the next cone.The drill continues until the players have tackled each bagman or at the coaches discretion.

The aim of the drill is to encourage the tackler to roll away from the tackle and get back on to his feet.

Be brief when telling the players the laws of this game, it's important to get them moving quickly. This is not a contact game. Break your players into two teams, giving each team their own colour of bibs if necessary. One team goes to attack, and one to defense. Nominate a Scrum Half for each team. There is no kicking in this game. Normal laws of rugby apply e.g. a forward pass will result in the ball being turned over to the opposition. If an attacking player is touched: they must go to ground, present the ball, two of their teammates ruck over (staying over the ball), and the Scrum Half moves the ball for the next phase of attack.The defence must commit three players to every ruck, or risk an infringement which will see tem pushed back ten meters. The ball must be moved from the ruck within 5 seconds. Make sure that the defense is employing your defensive pattern around the ruck.  Throughout the game the coach call the point of attack e,g, attack RED ZONE or Zone 2. The coach can also call the scoring zone, Score At Zone Yellow or Zone 3. As the game progresses have the players call the point of attack, and the scoring zones - but they must do this early and they must committ to that attack for a period of time. Have attacking players do what they normally would at the ruck. Depending on your goals decide on the number of touches you wish to allow e.g. unlimited is not a bad option as mistakes will be made! On a mistake or after a period of time, turn the ball over so that both teams get time in attack and defence. Don't hesitate to shape the game to focus on your session goals, and let us and other coaches know what worked for you!

<div class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Be brief when telling the players the laws of this game, it's important to get them moving quickly. </div> <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>This is not a contact game. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Break your players into two teams, giving each team their own colour of bibs if necessary. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>One team goes to attack, and one to defence. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Nominate a Scrum Half for each team. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>There is no kicking in this game. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Normal laws of rugby apply e.g. a forward pass will result in the ball being turned over to the opposition. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>If an attacking player is touched: they must go to ground, present the ball, two of their teammates ruck over (staying over the ball), and the Scrum Half moves the ball for the next phase of attack. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>When you start playing this game make sure that the defence is employing your defensive pattern around the ruck. As the game develops consider telling the defenders that they must have one or more players at the back of the ruck, if they are not fast enough to do this - push them back 10 meters. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>It’s important that defenders are employing their defensive pattern behind the primary defensive line. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Have attacking players do what they normally would at the ruck. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Depending on your goals decide on the number of touches you wish to allow e.g. unlimited is not a bad option as mistakes will be made! <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>When you feel the time is appropriate, usually during a ruck, blow you whistle and should FLIP IT – kicking in or throwing in a second ball to the back 3/2 defenders on the team currently in defence OR just kick it behind the defenders. The defensive team goes, without hesitation, into attack. The team that was attacking goes into defence and you or an assistant coach remove the other ball from play when you can. Ideally you might have two balls with different markings. <li class=&quot;&quot;&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&quot;&quot;>Don't hesitate to shape the game to focus on your session goals, and let us and other coaches know what worked for you!