By Eamonn Hogan, experienced rugby coach working with representative teams in the UK and the US



Rugby is all about finding or creating mismatches and exploiting them with line breaks or scoring opportunities.

In the youth age group there is a huge variation in player sizes and this leads to mismatches. Smaller players need to be able to handle being put into a mismatch.

To help the smaller player, try following three simple steps:

1. Make sure players are appropriately warmed up

Send players on to the field after completing a physical contact portion of the warm-up. Hitting a bag is fine but there needs to be a player-on-player element to it. It doesn’t need to be full-on contact but you must send them into a physical environment having prepared their bodies and minds.

2. Grab and drop

If you rush up on a big player before he has a chance to gain speed, he will bend at the waist and try and go through you. By simply grabbing his shirt at chest height and letting your weight fall to the ground, a big player will fall with you or at least be slowed down enough for someone else to assist in the tackle.

3. Don’t tackle head-on

You could go on YouTube and find a clip of a 10 making a huge tackle on a massive player running at them. However, there is a reason why it’s on YouTube… it’s so rare.

There are numerous techniques for adult players to halt the progress of a larger player running at them.
But at this level, I would simply say this: If you are a smaller player, don’t allow an attacker to run straight at you. Adjust your feet and tackle them slightly to one side. Most of the attacker’s weight will be directed at taking a tackle to the front not the side. Any hit from the side will upset this progress and allow a tackle to be made with the runner’s weight directed at the floor not into the small player.