Cure a leaky defence

Already leaked more tries than you expected this season. Here’s some cures to shore up your defensive line, which concentrate on technique, skills and organisation. Remind your players of what they do well and then help them to address their weaknesses.

Tackle mania is a fairly intense work out which gives a defender three different tackles in a short space of time. You can easily adapt it to change the intensity, and is ideal as a breakout or skills zone type activity.

Then, take this further by introducing the idea of working as a small team of tacklers in a Gang of three. Initially, you will develop the players’ footwork before bring them together in a game-like scenario.

Another way of doing this is through our practice plan, Tackling Corners. Here the players move into position to make a tackle, as they might in a game, often arriving at an angle before looking up to identify the threats.

Finally, you can create more decision-making as a group with Dizzy Defence. The players will need to communicate quickly who needs to cover who before getting into position to activate a strong defence.

Tackling corners

in Defence, Practice plans, Tackling

A simple session to help players work on the tackle that is something between front-on and side-on. It develops into a defensive system in which three defenders work together to prevent an overlap attack. MORE

Dizzy defence

in Defence, Rugby drills

Help your players react in defence to cover the main threats, and use the best defence possible in the circumstances. Use this set up to develop into a bigger game scenario, depending on your numbers. MORE

Gang of three

in Defence, Rugby drills

Improve your players’ tackle technique along with understanding the role of the closest defenders both inside and outside the tackler. MORE

Tackle mania

in Defence, Rugby drills

This is a session with many varied tackles in a short space of time. It works on technique, recovery to tackle again and finally defence decision making. MORE