Gets your players to concentrate on clearing the ruck and driving over the ball
Place three cones 4m apart. Put a ruck pad holder and a defender 2m behind and 2m to the side of each cone.
Put four attackers with a ball on the first cone. Their aim is to clear the three rucks accurately and ensure they protect and drive beyond the ball.
The ball carrier goes into the first pad and goes to ground. The next two players clear the pad and the defender next to it. The last player picks up the ball and carries it to the next pad and the players repeat.
Develop by increasing the intensity of the challenge for the ball by the defenders.
You will need
3 balls
3 cones
3 ruck pads
Got more players?
Line up more groups of four attackers ready to come on. Rotate the defenders regularly.
What to tell your players
“Drive into the contact area”
“Stay low in contact”
“Protect the ball”
A simple session to start with, but very intense, “pressure contact” works on reacting quickly to different contact situations and making good contacts.
The players need to be secure in their body positions in contact, so it works well after a technical session on body profiling in contact. MORE
Use this session to build players’ understanding of how to keep going forward in the tackle.
Collapsing in the tackle gives the defence more opportunity to steal or slow down the ball because it is more difficult for support players to get in behind the ball carrier. MORE
Improve the players’ mauling skills so that can keep going forward in contact and still retain the ball if they are held by a defender.
In contact, the ball carrier needs to stay on their feet because they will have to give up the ball if they go to ground. They also need to drive forward to make it easier for supporting players to drive in and support them. MORE
Attacking the space between two defenders in a close proximity means a good chance of a double tackle. Instead, attack one defender and beat just them.
In a tight defence, though the space between the defenders seems more attractive, it means that those two players step in to double team the ball carrier.
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"With the return to rugby, I’m really worried that my team (U13s) will have forgotten lots of things about rugby. In particular, I’m trying to work out when and how to introduce contact and tackling."
This question came from a coach in Gloucester and is typical of lots of concerns around this area of the game.
It is true that the players will have "forgotten" lots of skills.
Here's how I would approach this situation. On the next page are two tackling exercises to support training.
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