Rugby: defending a maul

defending a maul DRILLS
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Maul Touch Warm Up - Rugby Dri...

Be brief when telling the players the laws of this game, it's important to get them moving quickly. This is not a contact game, but there will be some light contact. Break your players into two teams, giving each team their own colour of bibs if necessary. One team goes to attack, and one to defence. Nominate a Scrum Half for each team, it will be their job to move the ball from the back of the maul and out to an attacking line. There is no kicking in this game. Normal laws of rugby apply e.g. a forward pass will result in the ball being turned over to the opposition. If an attacking player is touched: they must stop and turn, a maul is then built based on how you have trained your players to Maul. Only four players should be in the maul - but every player should be able to maul - including the backs! When you start playing this game make sure that the defence is employing your defensive pattern around the maul. They will commit 4 players, but will not do anything more than provide light resistance. Once formed the maul can take four steps before moving the ball. If there is a delay in creating the maul, or the quality of the maul is poor - the ball can be turned over. Depending on your goals decide on the number of touches you wish to allow e.g. unlimited is not a bad option as mistakes will be made! If a team has been in possession for a long time, don't forget to turn the ball over to give the opposition a run. Don't hesitate to shape the game to focus on your session goals, and let us and other coaches know what worked for you.

General

Defense vs attack drill School...

The aim is to the defensive situation to keep changing the defence gets used to drifting or pressing. The aim of the attack is to realign using the full width, get the ball out of the breakdown quickly (no matter what position you play), seeing space, communicating options and reading the defence. Can be done with any number of players but best suited to around 7. You will need 7 cones, 1 ball, a 40 m area, attack of line and try line. Players passed the ball quickly down the line. When the ball gets halfway, the coach shouts out a number. Number reflects the number of defenders. The end player puts down the ball by pad, then the 2 defenders get onside (beyond defensive line) and defend against the other attackers. The defenders need to work together. Stay tight and use the sideline extra defender. Drifting from the inside and pushing up and out. Attack looks to use, player pace and beat the drift. Important defence talks and understand what they are doing in the changing circumstances. With 4 attackers and 3 defenders, defenders might look for a blitz defence or up then drift. Scrum-half can break so defence must defend at guard. Attack should be looking up and reading the situation. If we have an overlap then as a unit we must understand how to fix defenders. You must start to add a kicking option to advance the drill. 8 players, you can have a forward runner offering a shadow line of 10. He is involved in the passing down the line but is on a separate cone in the front of the 7. This fits in with the patterns and philosophy of attack. You might get the forward to press ups or other exercise to replicate fatigue.

General

Living On The Edge Warm Up - R...

Split the players into two teams, giving each team their own set of bibs. Two different colours that clearly define the teams. Keep your player briefing, brief. It's important that you get your players moving as quickly as possible. Tell the players that we will be playing One Touch Ruck, see the laws surrounding this game in the Warm-Ups section of the SportPlan site. Briefly - when an attacking player is touched while carrying the ball: they go to ground and either pop or present the ball for a minimum of two supporting players to ruck over. The defence should behave as they normally would at the ruck, committing two players who will not compete for the ball or go into contact. The defence should employ their normal patterns around the ruck. The attacking team can have three touches in a row between the 15 meter lines, if they move the ball to the either of the 15 meter channels they can have another four touches in that channel before having to move the ball back out. If the attacking team moves quickly from one 15 meter channel to the other (exploiting space), they get a bonus of 4 touches in that zone. If any attacking team exceeds the number of touches they can sustain inside a channel, the ball is turned over. Play with these laws a bit - keeping an eye on what you want to achieve in this session. The normal laws of rugby apply, any law infringements result in a turn over. There is no kicking in this game. Don't forget to give the defence a turn in attack, if for any reason the attacking team is particularly good at retaining the ball. If they are, well done you as a coach!

General

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defending a maul ANSWERS
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Post lineout rules. Defending maul.

Hi, I have an enquiry about the post lineout rules. A lineout jumper successfully catches the ball, returns to the ground and precceds to maul. The defending team has three options to put (1)leverage against with defending maul, to (2) attack the main front men of the maul but also I heard on this weekends commentary there is a (3)dragging down. When the lineout jumper is returning to the ground it seems the defending team can hold the jumper as long as no pressure is excerted and when they hit the floor the defending team can tackle him (drag him to the ground) stopping the maul. Is this right and if so are there further rules governing this that i cannot yet find? I have read the IRB 2009 laws but still i have no answer. Many Thanks

Archived User Coach

Has anyone got any drills for defending a driving lineout

Has anyone got any drills for defending a driving lineout

Archived User Coach

I am trying to put together a season long coaching?

I am trying to put together a season long coaching schedule for under 13s and under 14s covering all the aspects of the game

Archived User Coach

I need to keep a training diary and I have no clue?

I need to keep a training diary and I have no clue as how to start one

Archived User Coach

What is the best way of preventing / defending against?

What is the best way of preventing / defending against pancaking in the lineout after the receiver has caught the ball?

Drew Sagar Coach, Canada

positional skill - how can i improve a props defence?

positional skill - how can i improve a props defence / decision making off the side of a ruck / maul?

david clark Coach, South Africa

where is the offside position for attacker during maul

where is the offside position for attacker during maul

Archived User Coach

We've just taken an under 10s team from England across?

We've just taken an under 10s team from England across the border to Scotland and all match the Scottish coach was shouting no targeting the ball in mauls and tackles and a penalty followed to them. What is this?

Archived User Coach

Off side in general play. Can anyone explain this better?

Off side in general play. Can anyone explain this better as it seems to be a bit ambiguous. When are you off side in general play? Rugby Unoin.

Karen Thornton Coach, England

Refereeeing an U10 ruck

As well as coaching U10 rugby, I also get to referee U10 games, under the New Rules Of Play. I feel that my refereeing of the ruck isn't as good as it could/should be. Has anyone got an easy to follow system to help them referee U10 rucks ?

Archived User Coach

Over confident players not offloading

hi I help coach a under nines team where the bulk of the team are constantly trying to run through tackle after tackle.when we talk to them they all understand about off loading the ball to avoid the seven tackle turnover, but as soon as on the pitch try line fever sets in.any ideas to encourage passing of the ball

paul stuart giltrow Coach, England

Interpretation of the maul - for U10s?

I will be coaching under 10 next season and need some guidance on how to interpret the rules for the maul?

Ezra rushen Coach, England

How many tacklers are allowed in U10s rugby?

At under 10s I was under the impression that it is 1v1 tackling. Can someone clarify the laws on this please?

Aaron Lee Newson Coach, Wales

(U11 Rugby) - How to referee the 'big lad'

I'm coaching and reffing U11 rugby and one of my players is the definitive 'big lad'. His 'strength' is his size and his power, but last weekend he didn't seem to get reffed fairly. The opposition couldn't tackle him down, one on one and when another two joined in to make a mini maul, that didn't slow him down much either. The ref then let other people join in the (one sided) struggle to tackle him down, which seemed very unfair as A) it's outside the laws of U11 rugby,, B) it makes it nigh on impossible for him to offload, C) when he is brought to ground, he has 4-5 players all over him and he got pinged for 'holding on'. He is a recent arrival to rugby and it was our first game for a couple of months, so the situation hadn't reared his head before. We are keen that he learns all of the core skills of rugby and doesn't get used as a battering ram, but after seeing a pack of hyenas trying to pull down the big fella, something just didn't seem right to me.I'd be grateful for any thoughts and opinions.

Archived User Coach

When a scrum is awarded following an unsuccessful end to a maul

When a scrum is awarded following an unsuccessful end to a maul, which team throws the ball in?

Arthur Johannes Coach, South Africa

Setting up maul directly from a penalty

Why don’t teams set up a driving maul directly from a penalty, rather than risk losing a scrum or line out?

Ade Collingham Coach, England

Interpretation of the maul - f...

I will be coaching under 10 next season and need some guidance on how to interpret the rules for the maul?

Ezra rushen Coach, England

(U11 Rugby) - How to referee t...

I'm coaching and reffing U11 rugby and one of my players is the definitive 'big lad'. His 'strength' is his size and his power, but last weekend he didn't seem to get reffed fairly. The opposition couldn't tackle him down, one on one and when another two joined in to make a mini maul, that didn't slow him down much either. The ref then let other people join in the (one sided) struggle to tackle him down, which seemed very unfair as A) it's outside the laws of U11 rugby,, B) it makes it nigh on impossible for him to offload, C) when he is brought to ground, he has 4-5 players all over him and he got pinged for 'holding on'. He is a recent arrival to rugby and it was our first game for a couple of months, so the situation hadn't reared his head before. We are keen that he learns all of the core skills of rugby and doesn't get used as a battering ram, but after seeing a pack of hyenas trying to pull down the big fella, something just didn't seem right to me.I'd be grateful for any thoughts and opinions.

Archived User Coach

When a scrum is awarded follow...

When a scrum is awarded following an unsuccessful end to a maul, which team throws the ball in?

Arthur Johannes Coach, South Africa

U10s organisation in defence. ...

I have started an under 10s team up, and I would say about 8 from the 13 children I have , did not play rugby until about 6 months ago. Of these players, there seems to be a lot of potential, as we are scoring tries against teams, that very rarely concede tries.the problem I got with them, is that we are very poor at organising our selves in defense when the opposition has the ball, which does result in us conceding quite a few tries. We have some very good tacklers in the team. Can anyone offer some ideas on how I can get them to organise themselves? Thanks . Chris.

christopher jenkins Coach, Wales

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