EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
Lineout training should be based around getting the basics right first. When Gary Gold was coaching the South African team with Victor Matfield and they were the best lineout in the world, he used to say: “They know where the ball is going, but Victor will always beat them into the air.”
But a lineout is not just about the jump/lift. It’s also about what happens afterwards. Here are four activities to develop different aspects of this set-piece situation.
Use Lineout good/bad phases to develop your play based on the success of your lineout.
Great four-man lineout plays gives you options if you lack lots of jumpers and lifters in your team,
If you don’t nail the throw and jump, Lineout recovery challenges the players to react and restart the phase.
Lineout imperfection is ideal to introduce more players into the possible lift/jump roles.
The best forwards’ coaches are often likened to nutty professors. Absolutely embroiled in the detail of lineouts and scrums, they find even the most mundane technique exciting. But their enthusiasm and understanding is all for nothing if their sessions are not interesting and engaging for the players. Watch England’s former lineout guru Steve Borthwick, now with Leicester, at work and you will see he’s constantly looking for ways to make training as close to the game as possible. Mike Cron, who’s done so much with the All Blacks over the last decade, is the same. MORE
With a slippery ball, make sure your lineout is secure by getting the jumper into space to meet the throw. The pod of three acts together to beat the opposition into the air. Shortened lineouts in wet weather reduce the chances of dropping the ball and conceding territory. MORE
Scrum halves and hookers need to be on the same wavelength. The timing of the put-in and strike have to be perfect to ensure clean ball every time at the back of the scrum. A clean strike at the scrum means the ball is available before the opposition back row is ready to react. Work on your 2 and 9 put-in connection. MORE
Though you aim for perfection, you know perfectly well that there will be times in the game when your team have to clear up the mess from a scrum or lineout. So, it’s worth devoting some training time to develop strategies to deal with these situations. MORE
in Rugby drills, Scrums & Lineouts
Not every set piece works out, and this session looks at some simple recovery strategies. It mainly involves one player retaining the ball, staying strong and then his team mates coming back to help him. A physical activity to develop ways to mop up errors. MORE
in Rugby drills, Scrums & Lineouts
This session connects a lineout with what happens in the phase after the lineout. It is aimed at developing a relationship between the set piece and phase play, depending on whether the lineout works or not. MORE
