More core skills and fitness drills

The following tips and drills follow on from Core skills and fitness drills, and focus on vertical jumps, moving from an upright position to a lying down one, tackling and sprinting around agility poles.

Ups and downs

  • Players start standing up in this drill. They get down so their chest touches the ground and then get back up as quickly as possible.

  • In pairs, one works for 30 seconds while the other counts. They then swap over.

drill that involves players moving from upright to lying down quickly

Extend the drill
  • Players roll over onto their backs and then back to their fronts before getting up.

  • Add a vertical jump when they get back up.

Continuous 2 v 1

  • Two players beat one defender by drawing and passing. The defender tackles using a two-handed touch.

  • Once they score, the initial ball carrier becomes the defender, the scorer becomes the initial ball carrier, and the defender becomes the support player.

  • Players work continuously for 30 seconds.

drill for passing skills practice and tackling skills

Extend the drill
  • Make the tackles full contact.

  • Add a second defender directly behind the first. The attackers have to beat both and then swap to develop the drill.

Agility pole sprints

  • Players sprint through the poles as shown, without touching any poles. At the end they sprint back to the start.

  • The next player goes when the player in front is halfway through.

  • Players work continuously for 1 minute.

drill using agility poles and gets players racing against each other

Extend the drill
  • Set up two courses with two players racing against each other, carrying a ball through the course.

Rugby coaching tips


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