Strategies, Tactics & Tips
Your players may have mastered every rugby skill, but without effective tactics they will struggle to win matches. The articles in this section look at the strategies and tactics to get the best out of your players in particular situations. They will help you develop tactical awareness throughout the team and give you a deeper understanding of the role of strategy in the game.
-
Make a Difference on Match Days
-
How you can control the game from the dug out.
-
Lineout Lifting
-
The lineout is a key part of the game. Ensuring your jumpers and lifters work together is vital.
-
The Half Time Huddle
-
This is a vital time for the coach. It must be carefully thought out to leave the players revitalised and prepared for the second half.
-
Kicking Off for Pressure
-
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.
-
Making the Most of Your Game Breakers
-
Some players are outstanding against a broken defence and yet becalmed by an organised defence. Here's how you can get them into the game.
-
Defending Against the Maul
-
The maul is a potent attacking weapon. It saps defence's energy and spirit, whilst giving attackers space and scoring opportunities.
-
What Not to Say!
-
"You've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late." Ray Gravell, Welsh centre of the 1970s.
-
6 Super Sub Strategies
-
Tactical substitutions are a common feature of modern rugby. Peter Tann explains how we can make the best use of these players.
-
Stats, Games & Videotape
-
Top sides have analysts to break down every phase of the game. Here's how you can adapt some of their techniques for your team.
-
Wrong Footing the Lineout Tail Gunner
-
Study their last man at your lineout and you may find yourself changing your strategy early on.
-
Chip and Chase
-
Make kicking a first phase attacking option.
-
5 Easy Steps to Devising a Team Strategy
-
How to focus your planning and coaching to make the best use of your time, resources and players.
-
Tactics to Improve Your Kicking Game
-
The kicking game is too often left to chance and the whim of the fly half. Here are some tactics to broaden your options.
-
Get Your Defence Up Quicker from a Standing Start
-
Give your team a defensive boost with the techniques used by sprinters.
-
Kicking for Pressure - Into the Wind
-
Windy days can make kicking a lottery, but you can use the wind to your advantage, even if it is against you.
-
Kicking for Pressure - With a Cross Wind
-
A cross wind is the most common occurrence. Here are some ways to maximise your kicking game in these conditions.
-
Getting the Winning Habits
-
Better Rugby Coaching offers some tried and tested ways of improving your winning chances.
-
A Game Plan when the Team Changes at the Last Minute
-
Coping when you're team's set, but one of the 15 drops out with less than an hour to go.
-
The Selfless Runner
-
How to integrate slow players into the wide ball game.
-
Make Every Second Count at Half Time
-
How to maximise the five minutes you have to reinforce, maybe even reshuffle, your team's strategies and tactics.
-
The Match Warm Up
-
Getting the last moments right before the game.
-
The Tackling Technique that Will Stop Tries
-
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.
-
Kicking for Pressure - On Hard Grounds
-
We challenge teams to think beyond the adage of "don't let the ball bounce" and change their attacking tactics.
-
Returning Kicks
-
An aspect of the game that does not always get the same emphasis as tactical kicking and chasing.
-
The Role of the Fly Half - 5 Ways to Create Space (Part 1)
-
The tactics you can adopt to create space, and therefore time, not just for the fly half, but for all your backs.
-
The Role of the Fly Half - 5 Ways to Create Space (Part 2)
-
The tactics and strategies you can adopt to create space, and therefore time, not just for the fly half, but for all your backs.
-
Training the Back Row
-
Ways to help improve this unit's performance.
-
3 Simple Tactics for Returning Kick Offs
-
Receiving the kick off is both an opportunity and a threat.
-
Making Communication the Key (Part 1)
-
The best rugby players at any level are never quiet in attack or defence. A two part article by Paul Tyler.
-
Making Communication the Key (Part 2)
-
The best rugby players at any level are never quiet in attack or defence. A two part article by Paul Tyler.
-
The Winning Secrets of Magic Space
-
Tactics to get your fast winger into the game.
-
Receiving the Kick Off
-
What to do when your receivers "aren't working".
-
Touch Rugby – Friend or Foe?
-
Playing touch rugby can pay dividends when it comes to full contact matches.
-
Muddy Pitch Tactics
-
Mud, mud, glorious mud, there's nothing quite like it for… changing your game plan.
-
The Role of the Blindside Flanker
-
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.
-
Pre-Season Do's and Don'ts
-
In all the excitement of pre-season training, it is possible to forget some of the principles of preparing your team for the first game, or indeed the whole season.
-
Rocket Ball
-
A Smart Sessions for training players to drive through contact situations
-
Hit the Opposition with Lomu
-
A Lomu inspired move from my 50 Great Back Moves manual.
-
Training in the Rain
-
Making the most of a session when it's raining.
-
Smashmouth Bullies
-
A simple offensive tactic to bully your opponents.
-
Shortened Lineouts
-
When, where, how, tactics and options
-
Smashmouth Plan B
-
What to do when your opponents won't be "bullied" by your "Smashmouth" tactics.
-
Never Say Never In Your Own 22
-
Innovation in the way your team plays can be held back by one crucial factor - you.
-
7 Key Factors to an Intense Defence
-
Getting your team organised and working together in defence can pay big dividends over the course of the season.
-
Overload Attack Game
-
Challenge your players' individual and unit defensive abilities.
-
The Best Attacking Options from Lineouts
-
It's vital you make best use of possession, says Jim Love, head coach of Viadana in Italy.
-
The Outback Full Back
-
With kicking being such a feature of the modern game, the positioning of your full back in defence can be critical.
-
Tactics to Beat Their Defence (Part 1)
-
Ways to identify your opponent's defensive tactics and refine your attacking strategy.
-
Tactics to Beat Their Defence (Part 2)
-
Ways to identify your opponent's defensive tactics and refine your attacking strategy.
-
Pop Cycles
-
A full session to boost your team's short passing skills.
-
It's Not What You've Got, It's How You Use It (Part 1)
-
Ways to improve your team's go forward.
-
It's Not What You've Got, It's How You Use It (Part 2)
-
Ways to improve your team's go forward.
-
3 Man, Sweeper, Chain and Arc for 7s Defence
-
Colin Hillman, former Welsh Sevens coach, describes ways to set up your sevens defence.
-
3 Proven Kicking Tactics to Win More Games
-
Inexperience and youth are not the only reasons why teams kick badly.
-
The Dangers of the Offload
-
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.
-
Strategies and Tactics for the Youth Game (Part 1)
-
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.
-
Strategies and Tactics for the Youth Game (Part 2)
-
Youth rugby has a number of differences from the adult version and requires different strategies. In this article I look at moves and plays.
-
A Great Short Lineout
-
Having less than seven players in lineouts can have lots of benefit.
-
Restart Strategies to Reclaim the Ball
-
Even a simple kick off strategy can enhance your team's prospects of winning the ball back.
-
Attack Strategies - A Simple Way to Create Space
-
A practice to improve inexperienced players' ability to attract defenders and free up space for team mates.
-
The Best Sevens Attack in the World
-
"Score off scrums, stretch the defence from lineouts and breakdowns, then score", says Mike Friday, the highly successful former sevens coach.
-
How to Play with a Small Pack
-
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.
-
Winning - The Stats that Matter
-
Let the statistics shape your season and your plans for every game.
-
8 Tips to Scoring More Tries
-
Bored of using the same old moves and plays? Then develop some imaginative new moves!
-
Exeter - A Great Backs Move
-
A move for the opposition half, but not too close to their line.
-
An Aggressive Lineout Defence
-
Defending against the lineout maul remains a vital part of the game.
-
Space – The Final Frontier
-
Players who are able to recognise and then exploit space effectively are highly valuable, but rare.
-
An Easy Move to Score Tries
-
A well-executed move can win a match. But this doesn't mean the move in itself has to be complex.
-
Unstoppable Tries
-
Can you plan for interceptions?
-
Seven Ways to Conquer a Better Team
-
The tactics and strategies to beat the best team in your league.
-
Beating Defensive Drift
-
Exploiting gaps in your opponent's defensive line.
-
Mauling with the ELVs
-
The ELVs (experimental law variations) are experimental no more. One of the laws causing most controversy concerns the maul.
-
Scrummaging with the ELVs
-
The ELVs (experimental law variations) came into force on August 1st. You will have to adapt your coaching, or your team will struggle.
-
The Scrum Half and the ELVs
-
How scrum halves have to adapt their defensive duties at scrums under the ELVs (experimental law variations).
-
The ELVs and Lineouts
-
The ELVs have resulted in a number of changes to the lineout laws.
-
Kicking from Your 22 Under the ELVs
-
When the whistle blows in your next match you'd better be prepared.
-
Inside or Outside Shoulder Defence
-
An alternative to the J curve or inside shoulder defence.
-
3 Tips for Better Match Day Tackling
-
How to get new players tackling and experienced players tackling better.
-
Turn Your Kicking Game into Tactical Gold
-
Here's my "ready reckoner" guide to the kicking tactics to earn your players the "order of the boot".