To ruck, or not to ruck

Ruck decision making in defence extends to players working out whether to compete at the ruck or leave the opposition to have the ball and so compete at the next ruck. The attacking team has to second guess defensive decisions. This leads to a game within a game above and beyond good technique.

Warm up time: 5-7
Session time: 8-12
Development time: 8-12
Game time: 15-20
Warm down time: 5-7

What to think about

Your team may have a plan on how many players to commit to a ruck in attack or defence. Some defences will commit no one and spread out. Others will make the attack work hard to win the ball, slowing it down. Deciding whether or not to commit can be described as a win, lose, win ratio. For instance, the defence may challenge for a ruck, but if they decide not to they must set up to try and win the next. This session helps build your ruck philosophy, perhaps by defining what works for you in training. Poor technique can mean you have to commit more numbers anyway. Though you can emphasise this point during the session, technical training should be left for another day.

set-up

1. In attack, make sure your team wins the ball first before realigning for the next attack.
2. In defence, decide whether you are going to compete at this ruck or the next one.

What you get your players to do

Set up six attackers and five defenders as in the top picture. Have the defenders start no more than 5 metres from the attackers in the first box. Have the attack move forward and take contact. Once they have taken contact they can move the ball to the next set of attackers who attack into the wide box. The attack either score at the end of this box or, if they take contact, can move the ball out of the box to the side. The defenders from the first box can shuffle round to cover this area. The drill finishes if there is an infringement, a turnover or the attack score over the far line.