Player Skills & Drills
No rugby player is good enough, no skill perfected. Player skills is the central part of most training programmes. Improve these and every other part of the game will simply click into place (well, we can dream). Whether players are improving their core skills or practising more advanced techniques, all coaches need fresh ideas to keep training dynamic.
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Lineout Lifting
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The lineout is a key part of the game. Ensuring your jumpers and lifters work together is vital.
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5 Ways to Maximise Player Pace
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It is said that a good "big un" will always beat a good "small un". The same is true of a good fast "un".
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Goal Kicking for Mortals
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Grant Fox, Michael Lynagh and Jonny Wilkinson - great kickers who were vital to their country scooping World Cup victory. So what can we learn from them, to help us kick winning goals?
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Kicking Off for Pressure
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It's not enough to simply kick long or short from kick offs. This article looks at the basic tactics of creating pressure from your kick offs.
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Catching Passes
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Even the best international players drop the ball, so it is useful to remind ourselves what the key principles are. And we are not just talking about a normal catch and hold.
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5 Steps to More Effective Rucking
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Here are five ways to spruce up your player's rucking skills and techniques to ensure quicker ball.
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11 Great Ways to Use Tackle Bags
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This man-sized tube provides you with a chance to improve your players' tackling skills. Are you getting the most out of your tackle bags?
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Touch Rugby to Make Your Players Shine
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This simple game concentrates on running, support play and passing ability, ensuring a great skills and fitness workout for the entire team.
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Defending Against the Maul
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The maul is a potent attacking weapon. It saps defence's energy and spirit, whilst giving attackers space and scoring opportunities.
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9 Ways to Train with Tyres
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A fun alternative to the usual drill equipment, to boost core skills and fitness.
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Wrong Footing the Lineout Tail Gunner
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Study their last man at your lineout and you may find yourself changing your strategy early on.
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Chip and Chase
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Make kicking a first phase attacking option.
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Secrets of the Maul
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Understanding the complex maul laws is the key to avoiding penalties being awarded against you.
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Making Core Skills Fun
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Core skills training can be a chore. Here's how to add some variety to make the process more fun and develop the skills quicker.
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Training with Tennis Balls
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Tennis balls make a welcome alternative from the usual rugby ball work and also teach good technique.
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Tactics to Improve Your Kicking Game
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The kicking game is too often left to chance and the whim of the fly half. Here are some tactics to broaden your options.
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Improvised Training
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Sessions to pull out of the coaching toolkit when your plans have gone awry.
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Make Your Side Better Tacklers
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Concentrate on getting the right mindset to get your players to tackle more effectively.
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Kicking for Pressure - Into the Wind
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Windy days can make kicking a lottery, but you can use the wind to your advantage, even if it is against you.
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Kicking for Pressure - With a Cross Wind
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A cross wind is the most common occurrence. Here are some ways to maximise your kicking game in these conditions.
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Passing Along the Floor
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A lucky break, or a potent attacking weapon?
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The Selfless Runner
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How to integrate slow players into the wide ball game.
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A Great Scrummaging Session (Part 1)
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How to run an effective scrummaging session in 30 minutes.
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A Great Scrummaging Session (Part 2)
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How to run an effective scrummaging session in 30 minutes.
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The Tackling Technique that Will Stop Tries
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The offload near the goal line is one of the key factors in many tries, says Paul Tyler. Improve your players' tackling skills to save tries.
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Winning Quicker Ruck Ball in 6 Easy Steps
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Quick ball means a chance to run at a less organised defence. But if your team simply can't produce the sort of ball your scrum half needs, here are some cures.
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Kicking for Pressure - On Hard Grounds
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We challenge teams to think beyond the adage of "don't let the ball bounce" and change their attacking tactics.
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Returning Kicks
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An aspect of the game that does not always get the same emphasis as tactical kicking and chasing.
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6 Attributes to Look for in Your Captain
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The captain's job is to ensure that each player is in the right frame of mind to give all they have to the team. Peter Tann offers his advice.
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The Role of the Fly Half - 5 Ways to Create Space (Part 1)
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The tactics you can adopt to create space, and therefore time, not just for the fly half, but for all your backs.
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The Role of the Fly Half - 5 Ways to Create Space (Part 2)
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The tactics and strategies you can adopt to create space, and therefore time, not just for the fly half, but for all your backs.
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Training the Back Row
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Ways to help improve this unit's performance.
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The Role of the Inside Centre (Part 1)
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The guide to the essentials and the extras of playing number 12.
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The Role of the Inside Centre (Part 2)
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The guide to the essentials and the extras of playing number 12.
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Making Footwork Fun
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Say "no, to core chores" and "yes, to fun fundamentals"!
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3 Simple Tactics for Returning Kick Offs
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Receiving the kick off is both an opportunity and a threat.
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The Winning Secrets of Magic Space
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Tactics to get your fast winger into the game.
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Receiving the Kick Off
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What to do when your receivers "aren't working".
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Blind Passing – Silent Support
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Are you brave enough to try these things?
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Coaching the Side Step
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Picture this - the truth and the "lie".
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Using Touch Rugby to Improve the Basics
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How touch rugby can allow your players to experiment and extend their core skills.
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Rugby in Union?
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What rugby union can learn from rugby league.
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The Role of the Blindside Flanker
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You need to blend the talents of three players to produce a back row unit whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts, says Peter Tann.
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Realignment - The Centre Shift
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It's not easy playing in the centre. Some of the specifics are difficult to define, but here is a clever little "adjustment" you can use.
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More Ways to Improve Tackling
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Whatever your defensive system, players need to be able to tackle.
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Laws Reminders - Knees - Lineouts and Crossing
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Can't you remember all the Laws?
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Stop Slow Ball Killing Your Game
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A key feature of rugby is the speed the ball is recycled. Quick ball provides options. Slow ball causes teams to struggle.
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The Role of the Number 8 (Part 1)
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The guide to the essentials and the extras of playing in this vital position.
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The Role of the Number 8 (Part 2)
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The guide to the essentials and the extras of playing in this vital position.
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Rocket Ball
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A Smart Sessions for training players to drive through contact situations
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Secrets of the Front Row - Better Binding
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The power of the binding between front row players is an important part of winning and losing games.
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What Rugby Netball Teaches Your Players
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I used to teach netball! I reckon it's better than basketball as a means of teaching spatial awareness, footwork and go forward.
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7 Ways to Improve Passing with Footwork
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Which of your players concentrates on getting their feet right before they pass the ball?
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Quick Draw McCaw
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A training session to get your players to tackle and win turnovers like Richie McCaw.
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Training in the Rain
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Making the most of a session when it's raining.
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Fundamentals of a Great Lineout Session
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Repeat, perfect. Oppose, compete.
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Shortened Lineouts
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When, where, how, tactics and options
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Concentrate on the Five
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Colin Ireland sets out exercises to test the five core skills.
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The One Session Workout
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Ken MacEwen shows you how to build your team's fitness and improve your players' skills at the same time.
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Tramlines Rugby Practice
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For Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, practising the basics is an important part of training.
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7 Key Factors to an Intense Defence
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Getting your team organised and working together in defence can pay big dividends over the course of the season.
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Overload Attack Game
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Challenge your players' individual and unit defensive abilities.
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The Best Attacking Options from Lineouts
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It's vital you make best use of possession, says Jim Love, head coach of Viadana in Italy.
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5 Ways to Create a Controlled – Aggressive Team
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Following the example of the All Blacks.
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The Outback Full Back
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With kicking being such a feature of the modern game, the positioning of your full back in defence can be critical.
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The Art of Falling Over
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How you fall makes a big difference to how well your side keeps the ball.
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Touch Rugby to Make Your Players Shine
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Simple games with big skills and fitness gains.
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Pop Cycles
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A full session to boost your team's short passing skills.
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It's Not What You've Got, It's How You Use It (Part 1)
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Ways to improve your team's go forward.
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It's Not What You've Got, It's How You Use It (Part 2)
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Ways to improve your team's go forward.
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3 Proven Kicking Tactics to Win More Games
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Inexperience and youth are not the only reasons why teams kick badly.
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A Better Way to Catch the High Ball
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You won't always have the ball, so you may find the following a simple but useful tool to help your players improve their catching, particularly when defending against the high ball.
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The Dangers of the Offload
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An offload is a ball that is passed after the ball carrier goes into the contact. Most commonly a player is tackled and, as they fall over, they "flip up" the ball to a player in support.
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Strategies and Tactics for the Youth Game (Part 1)
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Youth rugby has a number of differences from the adult version and requires different strategies. In this article, part one of a two, I look at the lineout and attack kicking.
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Strategies and Tactics for the Youth Game (Part 2)
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Youth rugby has a number of differences from the adult version and requires different strategies. In this article I look at moves and plays.
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Try Savers, Try Scorers
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Preventing and scoring tries close to the try line.
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A Great Short Lineout
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Having less than seven players in lineouts can have lots of benefit.
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Silent Running
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Making support players work harder.
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Focus On Tackling Technique
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You can help improve your players' tackling technique with the "eyes, shoulder, arms" system.
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Restart Strategies to Reclaim the Ball
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Even a simple kick off strategy can enhance your team's prospects of winning the ball back.
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Secrets of the Front Row - How Players Cheat
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It is helpful to know how cheating happens, so you can work out what strategies to overcome it.
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How to Play with a Small Pack
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Strategies you can use to deal with the challenges of having a small set of forwards, to play the most exciting rugby in the league.
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Faster Rugby Without Ladders
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Though fast feet ladders are becoming more common at training, using them can lead to problems.
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Kabaddi Drill Game
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Helping your players to make and then attack space.
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An Aggressive Lineout Defence
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Defending against the lineout maul remains a vital part of the game.
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Seven Uses of Funny Feet to Improve Your Team's Passing
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Games to develop passing skills, particularly when unbalanced.
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Space – The Final Frontier
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Players who are able to recognise and then exploit space effectively are highly valuable, but rare.
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"Freestyle" Training to Build Creative Players
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A game of basketball with a rugby ball? What's the point?
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Secrets of the Front Row - The Props
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Despite seeming to perform the same role - though in reverse - what's required of each prop differs in a number of key ways.
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Prepare for Speed
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Two warm up sessions to help your players cover the ground faster during the match.
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Rugby Quidditch
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Teaching younger players about space and evasion skills.
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Mauling with the ELVs
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The ELVs (experimental law variations) are experimental no more. One of the laws causing most controversy concerns the maul.
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Scrummaging with the ELVs
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The ELVs (experimental law variations) came into force on August 1st. You will have to adapt your coaching, or your team will struggle.
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The Scrum Half and the ELVs
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How scrum halves have to adapt their defensive duties at scrums under the ELVs (experimental law variations).
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The ELVs and Lineouts
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The ELVs have resulted in a number of changes to the lineout laws.
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Kicking from Your 22 Under the ELVs
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When the whistle blows in your next match you'd better be prepared.