Sharp defences need sharp minds

A strong defence has all the players working together as a unit. They are linked together, first in the front line and then in the backfield.

The defence compresses around the ball when the attack is close to the tackle line. It shifts and spreads as the attack reorganises or moves the ball backwards and wide.

That’s quite sophisticated movement, and especially when you have players of varying speeds creating those links. The best attacks aim to stretch and disorganise, stressing the weak points, or find spaces.

Practically, coaches only have a limited time with their players to work on all the possible scenarios. There is a danger that the system is too complicated for the team, either in terms of their skillset, or tactically for the teams they play against.

That’s why I think you need to spend time on the reasons why, as much as the techniques, skills and tactics to achieve a good defence. It doesn’t start with a tackle, it ends with it. It starts with the connection between the players.

Yet, in training, we can jump to the connection before the players have the right skills to make a good connection. To connect to the players around you, you have to be aware of what’s in front of you and be able to react to that. That requires good balance to move forwards and side-to-side to cover the attack in front of you.

This is one of the rare occasions I like to use ruck pads for contact work. I want a player to move and make contact, with the focus on the steps before the contact. The pad holder can give feedback, saying if they felt the tackler was strong. A glancing blow, perhaps around the chest level, isn’t going to score as well as low drive, with the leading shoulder and foot working together, with a good grip.

With that awareness to move, the defenders can do the same, but with others around them. The exercise on page 4 shows how you build this up. Now, they have to connect with each other to be successful. The moving targets create enough chaos to make it important to be aware and move accordingly.

There will be some communication. That’s good. Yet, in this case, all that communication is wasted unless the players have the right sense of what’s next to them and trust that player will cover their gap.

When it comes to full tackling as part of a defence, the players will come forward together, but only one will be making the tackle in the end. It’s the players around the tackler that force the tackle. If they weren’t there, the ball carrier might run to that space or pass to another player.

Don’t be fooled by players who talk a lot but don’t then make the tackles. While this sort of activity is about being organised, communicating and then coming forward together, it works best if all the players are prepared to make a tackle. An hesitation is likely to be found out by a good attacker, who might step or offload through a weak tackle and expose the defensive line.