Beef up your defence

Watch professional teams defence on TV and it’s hard to not be impressed by how much pressure they exert on the opposition attack.

Can you replicate this with your team? To a certain extent, yes. By having the ambition to play with a more organised and cohesive defence, aligned with better technique, you can “beef” up your defence in stages.

First, what do they do well.

More players around the ball

When the ball is played, the defenders are more tightly packed initially, especially around the edges of rucks.

That does mean they give away space wider out. There’s a risk and reward element here.

Stronger tacklers

The ball carrier is knocked back or put to ground quickly.

More pressure on attacks

Organised defences fly up in the face of the attack. With the compressed defence, this often cuts down the source of wide plays.

However, like some of the swishier backs moves or complicated lineouts, we cannot replicate all we see in international or pro-club defences.

A typical top team can dedicate a third of its training to defence and that can mean two hours a week, week-in, week-out.

But what we can copy and use are the basics of those systems and train the component parts of a defensive system to engrain good habits.

There are two ways you can beef up your system in just two sessions:

1. Improve the defence as a unit

Work them together to make tackles as a group – so any situation which ends up as a 1v1 tackle is a failure.

You will know that communication is an important factor. Build that into a system that does not simply rely on a couple of players shouting “up, up, up”. Instead, it is a natural part of lining up to pressurise the opponents.

See how Gavin Blackburn sets out how you get your players into position depending on attacking shape in his activity on page 4.

2. Get defenders to move off their defensive line quickly

If your defence is ready to move forward, make sure they do so in a hurry, to hassle and harry the attack. And they must do so as a unit.

Mark Calverley’s page 5 activity will create a tight defence around the ruck.

It’s important that the players understand why they are in their positions to defend rather then worry about getting into position. Otherwise, they can think that all they have to do is be in the right place and not that they have to squeeze out the attack with good line speed.

Urgent language also helps create the energy to charge forward.