Don’t just play a game in training, make sense of it for you and your players. London Irish Academy Coach Development Officer, Rhys Davies develops “Patriots Touch".
THE GAME
Play a normal game of touch rugby. Once touched, the ball carrier goes to the ground. They lift the ball to the support player. The defence must get back onside.
The defence must have a "back four" at all times. That means at least four of the players must be at least 10m behind the front line of defenders.
If the attackers can kick and bounce the ball into touch, they receive the ball back with the tackle count reset to zero. The first pass is made from where the ball went into touch.
The number of touches could vary. If you want to put the pressure on the attacking team to try to find kicking space then have a lower count of touches so they have to look to kick earlier or have it as a higher number like six so they have to manipulate the defence and create space.
Restarts from a try should be a drop kick from the middle of the pitch.
Kicking: Allowed (and encouraged).
Numbers: At least 10-a-side if possible.
Youngest year group: Ideal 14+, though some more confident younger teams might be able to cope with this.
Size of the pitch: Because you are challenging the attacking team to find kicking space and bounce the ball into touch to get the ball back, it's probably good to play the game on a slightly bigger pitch, potentially half a pitch played width ways.
Alternative rules
To challenge the defence after the ball has been kicked out you could get the attacking team to choose how many defenders have to start on the touchline before they play the ball.
The team that scores gets to choose who the defending team have in the backfield as their back four.
Or after a certain amount of tries the attack gets to take another defender out of the backfield (should make it easier to find space).
WHY USE IT
- Creates extra space in the defence.
- Encourages awareness of space. The attack needs to work how to exploit it, the defence on how to cover.
- Encourage different ways of going forward. Either by running at spaces or kicking to gain territory.
TOOLS TO USE
- Individual constraints: Regular kickers can’t kick.
- Freeze frames: Stop the game and the players keep still. Ask them where the space is. Ask them how to exploit that space.
ATTACKING FOCUS
Questions to challenge the players
- How do we know where the space is? Anticipating defensive actions, scanning, sharing information.
- Where is the most space on the pitch? "Edge" of the defence, over the top, corners of the pitch.
- How best might you attack the space we have spotted? Run, kick pass. What sort of passes, what sort of kicks?
DEFENDING FOCUS
Questions to challenge the players
- How can we apply the most pressure to the attack? High press, cover the backfield.
- How can we manipulate the attacking play? Show space wider, give space in close, leave a bigger blindside.
- How am I supporting the defence? Constantly moving, communicating. What sort of language are you using to help your teammates?
Download a printable session reminder sheet here:
Patriots touch
SKILLS ZONES
Examples for skills zones to use when you want to focus on an element of the game. Click on the links for more ideas.
- Handling against the drift
- Straighten the line
- Slide and hammer defence
- Real kicks to find space
HOW TO RUN THE SESSION
You could put it anywhere you liked within a training session, but the ideal would be as a game in the middle block of the session.
Here are some more examples of adaptive games.