Create a competition to get to the line, with the attacker either using speed or evasive skills to beat a defender coming from a different angle.
This easy to set up activity can be run as a breakout from games or as a large group in lots of boxes. Mix up the players so sometimes they are evenly matched and other times, there’s a bit of mismatch in favour of the defender.
ACTIVITY 1
Put a defender on cone A, B or C and an attacker on cone D, E or F.
When you say “GO” the attacker has to run over to the opposite line without being touched.
ACTIVITY 2
Have an attacker and defender walk/ run to and fro between their outside cones (A to C, D to F as for activity 1).
Then shout “GO” and the attacker aims to do as he did before.
Why not introduce full tackling? This is a good session ender, with prizes for winners, or forfeits for losers, like collecting up the cones.
TECHNIQUE
Keep light on your feet.
Attack hard one way, then step the other and attack that way.
For the youngest players, keep the ball in two hands so there is no chance of a handoff.
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
