EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
01/14/2021 | Rugby drills
In Lockdown planning: Quick ruck ball sessions, we focused on applying pressure on the defence. Now, let's plan for the other side of the ball. France's defence coach, Shaun Edwards says that it is his main metric for success: slowing down ruck possession. To enhance learning, you are better off focusing on an “arc” of learning for a specific area. This means spreading out the training over a number of weeks, rather than dedicating one session to this. MORE
01/14/2021 | Small-sided games
This is an adaptation of a game I use in school. It’s great as a warm-up or as a game to encourage and support creativity before moving towards a more rugby-specific game. It encourages and challenges evasion skills, spatial awareness, communication, as well as passing, kicking and catching. MORE
01/11/2021 | Rugby coaching
Whether you were hooked or not, Game of Thrones was a phenomenal TV hit. Over 32 million viewers watched season eight. There were lots of reasons why but one which has perhaps a lot to do with the way we should be coaching rugby. MORE
07/28/2020 | Mini tag
Get your ball carriers used to running forward to score tries. This session can be run as a warm-up or as a proper tackling session as well. Often players fail to run forwards even when they know the try line is that way. This session should encourage them to attack a space in front them and go for it. MORE
12/7/2019 | Rugby coaching
Your side will have its fair share of stars, good players and not-so-good. Keep all the players involved and happy, and make each one feel they are a world-beater. MORE
11/24/2019 | Rugby drills
"There’s not much incentive to be a third receiver. The Law of the Jungle suggests that if you want to touch the ball, you get close to it." MORE
12/14/2020 | Small-sided games
Here is my version of Tens which should allow all your players in your squad to get the most out of the modified version of the game. MORE
12/7/2020 | Small-sided games
Here’s a game of invasion, evasion, tactics, intensity, teamwork and nerve. Every player will be involved and it will help develop fitness as well as skills. This game is really active and allows everyone to take a role. Great for fitness due to a high work rate and also allows you to focus on a range of fundamental skills. MORE
12/5/2020 | Small-sided games
We have been adapting to the new way of working with Covid and trying to create a positive learning environment. I believe the environment you create is far more important than your tactics and complicated game plans. I will show you how we set up and extended Rondos as a game, plus the feedback the players told me afterwards. MORE
01/12/2021 | Rugby drills
12/22/2020 | Contact
12/19/2020 | Rugby drills
12/18/2020 | Contact
12/12/2020 | Kicking & Catching
12/11/2020 | Rugby drills
The ball spends more time on the ground in games than we train for. Players drop the ball or pass it poorly and there can be a lot of aimless kicking. All your players need to be ready to drop on a ball on the ground and get back up to gather it. MORE
More teams are refusing to kick for touch, instead kicking for territory in a bid to launch counter attacks. This simple session helps players discover ways to perfect this and should be a standard session for every season. MORE
“Staying alive” means keeping some forward momentum through the contact area. So rather than meekly going to ground when faced with a defender, the ball carrier fights to stay on their feet. This provides a better target for the support players and improves your team’s recycling of the ball. MORE
09/22/2020 | Email Newsletters
Evasion is a fundamental movement skill. Players use in pretty much all their activities, without necessarily focusing on the specific skills they need. Without becoming too bogged down in the technical requirements, you want to improve your players starting and stopping, balance, change of direction and acceleration. With that comes an awareness of space, time, teammates, the opposition and the ball. MORE
09/3/2020 | Email Newsletters
It's exciting that in England at the very least, contact training is back. However, with only 15 minutes allowed for contact training, you won't be wanting to waste any precious time. So, why not get the players warmed up for contact, without contact! How does that work? MORE
08/11/2020 | Return to play
Use this handling game as an ideal warm-up to enhance handling, as well as challenge the players to innovate. MORE
01/15/2021 | Rugby coaching
How often have you heard: "No, yes, good, great," and then lots of sighing. Does this sound like a coach you know? And does this really seem helpful? Let's consider how we enhance our language to engage players and most importantly understand them. MORE
01/13/2021 | Coaching Laid Bare with Bird Burgess
Bird and LJ welcome Katie Sadleir, general manager Women's Rugby with World Rugby since 2016 and was recognised as one of the top 10 rugby influencers (Rugby World Magazine 2020). MORE
01/11/2021 | Rugby coaching
received these two emails within a few hours of each other, so this isn’t an isolated situation. However, I will hasten to add, it’s not a problem either. Up to the age of 17/18, boys grow at very different speeds. This is both physically and mentally. It’s likely that the more “aggressive” teams you face have a number of boys are ahead of the curve in this sense. They are more mature than their peers. MORE
01/9/2021 | Rugby coaching
Demanding games tend to be toughest on your best players because they put themselves in the action the most. Help them manage themselves to play for longer. In a tough period of games there will be many players beginning to wane after successive demanding outings. The extent of this waning will depend on their strength... MORE
01/12/2021
If you are able to train, then you will be aiming to improve your players' skills and tactical appreciation around specific areas of the game. If you are in lockdown, it's a chance to hone your session planning in readiness for your return. MORE
12/29/2020
Here’s a headline that’s not going to get your players back to training quickly: Tackling and Fitness Training. However, as we focus on safety and reducing the exposure to a concussion, all the most recent data suggests we need to have better-prepared players. In particular, the fitter the player, the stronger they are, and more... MORE
12/1/2020
With lots of teams thinking about tackling again, here are four activity ideas to build up tackle confidence and defensive awareness. They can also be combined into one session: Technical warm up: Tackling memory jogger Skills development: Tackle balance Skills game: 2 v 4 contact box Game awareness: Bounce out tacklers MORE
“The boys have really enjoyed the drills from Rugby Coach Weekly. It's been great having them at my fingertips and every training session this season we tried new things, which I believe helped keep the boys interested and enthusiastic.”
Phil Hopkins, Perigueux, France
72 of the Game's Tactical Concepts in Simple, Plain Language MORE
With so much to cover when coaching young players, it can be a daunting task to know the basics... now there's help MORE
