See how well individuals react under pressure at the ruck with this decision-making activity and progression. It isolates ball presentation and 1 v 1 ruck skills. It’s intensive, so only needs to last ten minutes.
Putting the spotlight on players helps understand where they are at with their development. This exercise can also create confidence because if a player is forced to ruck and finds success he may build on this in games.
Put a ball carrier and defender on one knee about 1m apart facing each other, just by the side of a ruck pad.
Put another attacker and defender at each corner, behind their team mates.
When the ball carrier moves, the game is live.
The ball carrier aims to beat the defender to get to the other end.
At the same time the other players come into support.
There’s no passing.
Stop when a try is scored, an infringement made or the ball is secured for the attack or defence.
Referee each situation carefully.
Rotate players regularly.
Progress by changing the start point of the supporting attacker and defender.
Finally, finish with two supporting attackers and defenders, releasing none, one or two of each when the ball carrier starts.
TECHNIQUE
Ball carrier, fight to the ground before placing the ball back.
Supporting players, arrive square, stay on your feet, but get lower than opposite man
Use parent stations to allow you to run lots of activities with a parent overseeing each activity.
It requires one parent, minimal setup and minimal instructions. Each station runs for two to three minutes before the players move to another station. MORE
One player goads another, then touches the line and races to the other end to avoid being touched by the chaser. It’s a like smaller version of the Bangladeshi game of Kabadd MORE
Create attacking shape, where forwards understand where they are supposed to run to support the next phase of play. The groups of forwards are called pods and need to work together. MORE
Should an attack be successful at a 2 v 1 every time? At the top level, most of the time you would have thought, yet you would be surprised how often they fail.
Add in another attacker and defender, or even two attackers and one defender, and that ratio of success drops very quickly.
But it is still a golden opportunity to make ground and even score. So, you need to increase the success rate, and you do this by creating as many scenarios as you can. MORE
Dropped balls or loose kicks mean that the ball is on the ground and needs recovering. Use this session to work on the skills and decision-making around this situation.
It’s not a natural action to fall on the ball. Help the players understand how to develop this technique as smoothly as they can. MORE
Get your players in place quickly to attack at pace from the next ruck in this simple realignment activity.
Creating and keeping depth in an attacking line running onto the ball at pace and still have space and time to pass. MORE