Counter ruck

Disrupt teams that do not put enough players into the ruck by counter rucking at the right moments. The first skill is to know how to counter ruck, then when to do it. This session works on developing the technical and decision-making tools to slow down or steal opposition ball.

Warm up time: 5-7
Session time: 8-10
Development time: 10-15
Game time: 15-20
Warm down time: 5-8

What to think about

Counter rucking should only be done by two players at most. If you commit too many resources, you open up gaps elsewhere, skewing the risk and reward balance in favour of the opposition. Should the counter ruck be effective, your players can flood through to steal the ball.

set-up

1. Identify whether the opposition is weak (lazy or poor body positions) and then attack over the ball.
2. Drive over the ball with short, powerful steps, wrestling the opposition to unbalance them if not driving them back.

What you get your players to do

Put three attackers one step in front of a ball, 3m apart. Put three counter ruckers 2m away from the line of attackers. The counter ruckers run around to clear each attacker (see picture 1:1). Counter ruckers should work on getting into a strong position to drive attackers either back over the ball or away from it (see picture 1:2). After five seconds of counter rucking, stop and swap attackers and defenders. Keep a tally of how many each group “wins”.