Poach or leave: make better decisions

How often have you seen your players pile into the contact area with little or no regard to whether it is right or wrong? Sometimes, they simply knock into their own players, perhaps leading to penalties, but certainly not making much difference. Other times, with so many players so tightly bunched, the opposition has plenty of space to exploit elsewhere.

Let’s say you set up some simple rules for the players to follow to help them position themselves around the ruck. Now the players will have roles. You might have the first two players at either side of the ruck guarding against a “pick and go” and the player next to this guard ready to stop the 9 scooting off.

Whatever you and your players decide, they are going to have to be adaptable, because once a match is live, rucks can happen anywhere, and they can be set up slow or fast. Work on player positioning in the reload exercise on page 4, where they race from ruck to ruck. There are no prizes for guessing that communication is important – players must identify quickly who is who as they arrive into position.

The next decision is whether it is worth going for the ball or not. Help the players to think whether the ruck is “hot” or “dead”. A hot ruck is worth going for. A dead ruck should be dumped and defenders should get into position for the next one.

Use the “Hot or not?” decision-making activity on page 5. It works on the 1v1 snare tackle, with the tackler rolling away quickly. It then has a player thinking about their role as a possible poacher and the techniques to steal the ball.

Finally, it makes the defenders consider their roles around the ruck and whether to go for the ball or not.