Agility before contact rugby coaching tips
This rugby coaching session is about players avoiding or engaging a defender on their own terms.
It helps you coach your players on how to use agility to attack the weakest part of the potential contact situation.
The players need to keep lower than usual, use footwork to move to one side of a defender, and to go forward and beyond the defender, all the while keeping the ball away from contact.
What you get your players to do
In a 5 metre square, mark a line down the middle to indicate the gain line.
- One attacker with a ball and one defender stand about 1 metre either side of the gain line (adjust the distance depending on the players' skill levels and success rates).
- The attacker tries to beat the defender and score by running out of the end of the box. The defender can only move once the attacker moves.
- Develop the rugby drill by introducing defenders at the sides who can enter the box once the attacker has moved (as in the picture).
Develop the rugby drill
- Add supporting attackers at cones A and B.
- Extend the box to 10 metres wide, but keep it the same length.
How would I put this rugby drill into a game situation?
Play a game of "offload rugby" on a 20 metre long, but much wider pitch. Ideally try to keep the game to a 4 v 4 and run a number of games at once.
The attackers can only pass the ball in contact or use one pass away from the breakdown. This should force both attackers and defenders to use footwork to gain the upper hand in the contact situation.
This article is taken from the Better Rugby Coaching e-newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free rugby drills and skills twice a week.
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