“The defender keeps themselves light on their feet, head up and marking a potential break, coming forward to close down an attacker when they move forward” MORE
Players must win the race to the best space when attacking. In defence, players must work early, scan early and look to close space to force errors.
Attackers seek space, defenders take it away. This is also true over the ball.
Run this game over a series of sessions to gain the most benefit as the players develop their understanding of the tactical implications. MORE
Here’s a series of super-quick activities to set up and use to mix up your training to keep all your players occupied. Ideal to hand out to your co-coaches and aimed at a range of core skills in game-like contexts.
Here. is a series of what I’ve called Quick Coach. They are mini-activities aimed at four to six players. The aim is to provide you with a bank of breakout exercises you can run during your session. They should only last around five minutes, but the key is that they are very quick to set up and can be run by any coach in your group. They can even be run by one of the players if appropriate. MORE
“Two attackers run down the corridor. If the attacker is two-hand touched, he has two seconds to pass the ball. Defenders come forward when the ball carrier comes into their box.” MORE
“Attackers aim to get to the other side without being two-hand touched. If touched, they join the defence. The defenders start facing away with two or more defenders” MORE
Here are three versions of popular training games to help your players develop their creativity, awareness, resilience, decision making and self-organisation. In other words, the RFU coaching development core messages.
To run the games, quickly explain the set-up of the game and then let the players layout the pitch. This promotes a certain amount of buy-in, whilst you will be directing them. For example, I show them a layout on a piece of paper, and they interpret it. MORE
Here’s a game I’ve been using in training around decision making at the breakdown in defence and attacking the best space when in possession. It is best delivered over a six to eight week block to embed the learning in both attack and defence. MORE
