Rugby: open field

What does the "T Bone" concept mean when defending?

What is the current thinking regarding kickoff receiving alignment?

We have open this thread to continue the discussion on Player Empowerment started in the Coaches Hot Tip in this month's newsletter. If you missed it, here it is again. There is no doubt that if you want your team to be successful, you need the players to make decisions on the pitch for themselves. We know that if a team is used to getting the answers to problems on the field from the coach, it will mean that they will hesitate and look to the touchline before commiting to an action and that, of course, will be far too late! The coach can still influence things but once the game has started it is a fairly minimal influence, during the game it must be the players who react to situations as they happen and make decisions immediatley. Therefore, it is essential to have leaders in the team who feel confident about making decisons in the heat of the battle. They need to know that even a wrong call is better than no call. They should feel that their coach will support them in making a call and, if it was not necesarily the best decision, will help them make a better one next time without being too critical. Ideally, the leaders and decision makers will be at key positions in the team where they can communicate with other players as well as influencing play themselves. Key positions are Numbers%3A 2; 4/5; 8; 9; 10 and 15. This is often referred to as "The Spine or Backbone" of the team. This is not to say that a good captain and leader can't be in another position but if they are, for instance an 11 or 14, they will need good co leaders in the key positions to communicate their decisions during a game. To develop this spine to operate as leaders, the coach should involve these players in discussions about how the team are playing - making them feel some ownership and responsibility for the teams performance. They could also be involved in unit practises, for instance the 2 and 8 could Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 occasionaly lead part of a line out practice, once the coach has agreed with them what the practice needs to achieve. The coach is not giving the players complete control but rather, allowing them to be involved in the process of team development. Obviously, the age and ability of your team can affect how far along this path you can go but, even with players as young as Under 8's, I have found that delegating some responsibility is a really effective way to build a cohesive and well functioning team! Let me know your thoughts on this type player empowerment. Good luck Simon

would anyone know any tips to practice awarness and other tips for a flanker no7 aged 17

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Is it legal to intentionally wheel a scrum?

Why is it important to get players to score the try when completing a handling/running drill?

Drill to help to teach backs how to check their line up from defensive to attacking

I have just started coaching touch at my school and have been trying to find out about field positions. can anyone help me? i have only been doing drils at practice and now want to start having mini matches.

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.

Hello, in open play i want to have my forwards split up across the field not just chasing the next ruck. im not sure exactly how to teach them where they should be standing. (positional play) (Dane coles always seems to be a wing in open play)

Hello, in open play i want to have my forwards split up across the field not just chasing the next ruck. im not sure exactly how to teach them where they should be standing. (positional play) (Dane coles always seems to be a wing in open play)

Offside confusion - I have been coaching mini rugby in Scotland for just over a year and had just got used to the idea that the ball is the off side line. Now under the new SRU law variations it is the same as the adult game. Can someone assist with the follwing scenario - A defender comes forward to tackle the ball carrier. The ball carrier side steps the defender and carries on going forward. The defender turns to give chase only to find that the ball carrier has passed the ball backwards across his path in attempt to reach his team-mates. If the defender catches the ball is he off-side? Would the answer to this question change if the defender was on the right side of the ball at the time the interception was made even though he was beyond the ball carrier at the time which the pass was made?

Looking to open a bit of a debate. I was running a 'coach the coaches' course last night and I asked the candidates 'do you coach your players to run at the man? or run at space?'. There was a 50/50 split, the older coaches said 'the man', younger ones 'the space', and others who'd never played before 'both!'. What do you coach?

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.

I just finished my collegiate rugby career. I feel inspired I would love to coach rugby to women in countries that have a lower popularity of women's rugby. How do I get started?

What drills would anybody reccomend to encourage forward running in an u8s side,whilst keeping it fun?Some players tend to crab along the pitch.

Getting quite frustrated that my u10's are not using the space on the pitch and tend to bunch up. Despite various drills and game scenarios to force them to spread out and pass to someone in space they revert in any game to bunching up around the ball and taking it back into the thick of the opposition rather than looking left or right! Any ideas how to change their ways?

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.