With younger age groups, the ball must be passed away from either the tackle or the ruck. Every player needs to be a clearing passer, and the faster the better.
The clearance pass doesn’t need to be a spin pass. A firm pass, with the hands going through to the target is enough on most occasions. All the players in your team should be practising this skill.
ACTIVITY
Have one player as the clearing passer, and two players as receivers.
The clearing passer starts at the ball, with the first receiver about 5m away to the side and the other receiver right behind the clearing passer.
The clearer passes to the first receiver as they run onto the ball.
The receiver then runs forward a couple of paces and puts the ball down.
The other receiver runs around into position, with the clearer runs to the ball on the ground. The group then repeats.
DEVELOPMENT
Once the ball is placed, the next receiver can choose to go left or right, but with a clear call first.
GAME SITUATION
Three lettered players stand about 7m from a try line with a ball about 2m from the try line.
Shout out a letter and that player is the clearing passer. The others are the receivers.
The group has to score in the quickest possible time, with a clearing pass and one more pass.
Create 3v2 situations in a training context that disrupt the attack and defence enough to make them concentrate on good skills rather than “gaming” the scenario. Gaming the scenario means players manipulating the rules and setup to win the game in a contrived manner rather than using the natural order of rugby. For example, a... MORE
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