For Drift, as I understand, the defense begins marking man to man. As the first attacker passes, the firsr defender calls the drift and the entire line drifts  diagonally onto the next attacker.

For up and out I'm less sure. I've read that all of the line line up in the channel inside the attackers, and then move forward for 3-5 meters, then out to force the ball to move outside, again with the whole line moving together. I've also read a slightly different desciption. In this, the defense lines up man to man. As the first attacker passes, the first defender drifts into the channel between the first and second attacker. Crucially, however, the second defender stays on his man creating a 2 on 1..

So-are any of these anything approaching drift or Up/in?? If not, can someone explain in simple, tight head friendly language, this defense lark? And what are the advantages/disadvantages of each system?

Thanks in advance..

Simon

Death or Glory

up and in is however less common and revolves around (in my case) a one out starting position i.e. that 10 would typically stand opposite 10 but in "one out he/she moves to stand opposite 12, with the open wing "spare".   The up would be controlled from the inside man again (some teams control this from outside) but we find that tough due to the distance from the ball & the timing of the "up".  Then once up the defence steps in to block off the space - typically the winger and outside centre would charge up and in and close the outside lines down.

My team tends to use up and out 90% of the time but slips in up and in/one out when the team we're playing possesses quick wingers as this moves tends to cut their ball off easier than up and out.

Pros of up and out imho are that it's simple to describe and tends to be the standard method for defence, it also benefits from using the 16th defender - the touchline - since you're shepparding the team towards that way.

On the downside it relies on a strong 7 or 8 to cover the "hole" left when the 10 drifts out, many teams know there is a gap there and as such strike moves often attack back against the drift.  Also (and this is a reason I prefer to refer to it as up and out rather than drift) there is a tendancy for players to start drifting early and before they've closed the space i.e. made the up move.  This leads to the attackers getting the momentum as their running up and your team are running "accross".

Up and out's main pros imho are that it congests the midfield and therefore forces teams to throw longer passes to break you down - longer passes = more risk and more options for intercept or turnovers.  It also allows you back row the chance to "marraud as 10 takes his own man and there is no hole back inside so 7 & 8 can simply focus on attacking the break down  (on both systems I use my 6 as a sweeper).

down side to up and in is that it is much more difficult to get it into players they find it incredibly difficult to stand outside their opposite number.  Also it does leave a hole if the team your playing has a really quick fly half or someone willing to take the ball very flat, since your 10 is outside them and therefore needs some time to get into their space.

Finally my view is you can use any defence system and it will work 95% of the time no matter the players as long as each of your players are a good 1 on 1 tackler.  this is an area I work on hard with all my teams as the biggest reason any defence is broken is not lack of a system or indeed misuse of a system it's cos one person missed their man.

I hope this helps and is reasonably clear!  Of course Dan's site has some more stuff...

http://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/Keyword-108-Strategies,-Tactics--Tips-Defence--Defensive-Systems

Thanks for your mention of up/in-but I meant up and out...

Death or Glory