One of the hardest aspects of coaching rugby is bringing a team back up after a loss. Sooner or later every team faces defeat, and as a coach, how you deal with this situation will define your quality. I have a background in education, and I have often read theories about how to teach young people the importance of learning to fail well, and I think these principles apply directly to coaches and their teams. So how do you fail well?

Reactions to Failure

Failing Badly:

• Externalising own failure eg. This whole team is rubbish; it’s not my fault we keep losing
• Shifting blame to other people eg. It was the refs fault we lost
• Denying failure exists
• Catastrophising failure eg. The whole world is against me/us
• Universalising failure eg. Rugby sucks
• Avoiding all situations where failure is possible eg. I don’t want to play rugby anymore, it’s too hard.

Failing Well

• Taking responsibility for your own actions in game situations, analysing processes used, making changes, and trying again.

Creating a climate where players feel safe to fail

A good coach will create a team environment where players feel safe failing. Players aren’t always going to be on top of their game, and at times things aren’t going to go their way. Players will lose lineouts, they will drop balls, they will give away unnecessary penalties and miss kicks at goal. If you create an environment where players can act positively towards their faults, and work on bettering their mistakes, then you have done your job.

Key Aspects:

• Requires consistency of approach
• Separating performance from person i.e. you had a bad game, but that doesn’t make you a bad player
• Using a process of continuous improvement:

1. Gathering feedback
2. Looking for trends
3. Admitting mistakes
4. Making changes
5. Gathering more feedback

…this process applies for you and all of your players.

Rugby is a hard physical sport, and for players to be successful they will need to have a high level of fitness. In this article I will look at some different methods players can use to prepare themselves for a season of rugby. I will focus on fitness work during three different phases of the year: Off Season, Pre Season, and During the Season.

Off Season

This is the period starting from the end of the previous season. It is important for any athlete to have rest, however, it is also key to keep fitness levels at a good level, so the player doesn’t have to start from scratch again at the start of the season. Players need to work on a range of areas including muscle building, endurance, and to use interval training to emulate the rapid bursts of energy used in a game of rugby.

Rugby Fitness Training Schedule

• Monday – Weight Training – Gym work, Builds player strength. Exercises could include: Triceps Extensions, Pull Downs, Butterflies Leg Curls, Military Presses, Deltoid Lifts, Biceps Curls, and Leg Extensions.

• Tuesday – Interval Training – Emulates game fitness. Short sharp burst of energy, with intervals of rest. Sprint, rowing , swimming or cycling can be used for variety.

• Wednesday – Weight Training

• Thursday – Interval Training

• Friday – Rest

• Saturday – Any Sports Activity – An off season sport such as touch rugby is helpful here. It’s important to remember always that sport should be fun.

• Sunday – Long Slow Distance – A nice long jog or cycle will help with overall endurance levels.

Pre Season

In the period leading up to a season the Saturday session needs to be replaced with more rugby specific exercise. Most teams will form during this period. As Saturday is the most likely day you will be playing during the season, it is good practice, to get a players body into the habit of dealing with higher levels of activity on this day. So a high intensity anaerobic workout is necessary. A good way to monitor player fitness pre-season is to use a beep test. We have a free rugby beep test available to download if you are in need of one.

During Season

During the season Tuesday and Thursday sessions will be replaced with team training. If you have a roll in running team trainings it is important to remember that most player injuries occur during direct player to player contact. So although it’s important to get players used to physical activity involved in rugby, it is a matter of finding a medium someone between hard out bone crunching sessions…and sessions where players only use hit shields and pads.

Backline Communication

The key to good backline defence is communication. A player needs to cover all of an opponent’s attacking options. A common mistake is when players get caught “ball watching” when the ball is still back at a breakdown. This can lead to overlaps, and mismatches. It is important for players to observe any formation changes in the opposition backline and communicate this to thier own players.

Key points to get across to your players when coaching defence

• Tackling technique is important, particularly at youth level coaching proper tackling technique is key
• Use your speed to close down an attackers space
• Use control and balance when approaching the attacking line
• Support your outside player`s inside shoulder.
• Put pressure on the player you are marking
• Don’t be afraid to adapt or change defensive patterns, to stop the opposition reading your plan
• If you commit to a tackle, make sure you commit the attacker to a decision

Where’s your head at?

Defence is a mental game.  You often see at junior levels young rugby players showing fear of tackling larger players. Coaching this fear out of younger players is an important aspect of teaching defence at younger levels of the game. If your players won’t tackle, they aren’t going to win games. Fear can be coached out of younger players with experience. They soon see that bigger players fall harder, and if you work on their fitness, and technique there is no reason why an aggressive small team can’t steam roll a much larger side.

Formations

It is often a good idea to explain your defensive plan in terms of formations. The following are a few basic formations used in our modern game, some of which originated from Rugby League.

Slide Defence or “Up and Out”

Slide defence is all about marking up and standing inside your opponent giving them space outside you. This encourages opponents to slide towards the sideline. This is a good tactic if you have very fast backs, as your players need to have the wheels on their opposition.  It works as your are encouraging opponents to use the outside space, but at the same time you are using your speed, and the side line to limit their options.

Up and In

For an “Up and In” defence you stand and mark up on the outside of your opponent, limiting their outside options, and driving them back towards your forwards. This is a good plan when you suspect your backs are slower than the opposition, and where you have a much bigger forward pack. This formation encourages more action in tight where your forwards operate.

Up and Decide

The “Up and Decide” formation is a combination of both the above. Where the first 4 players from the ruck mark up on the outside, forcing close play to stay tight. This closes down space for those players hitting the ball up. However, if the ball is spread wide, outside backs mark up on the inside of their opponents, and use slide defence, speed and the sideline to limit their opponent’s space.

Drills

Some great drills for coaching defence from our Rugby Coaching Videos section:

1v1 Tracking Square

Continuous Defense

4v3 Moving Defenders

Image credit: Suewells10

Science

A warm up in rugby is very important as it increases your body and muscle temperature. It also helps to activate muscle groups and stimulate the nervous system to increase joint mobility. This prepares players for the tough physical activity of rugby while lowering the risk of injury.

What should players do?

The following video is a good example that looks at some of the options for warming up players for a game of rugby.

Summary

• Light jogging to loosen things up
• Increase intensity – do some stretches
• Work some basic skills increasing intensity

A cool down routine is also very important to help muscle and joints to relax. It helps player’s avoid muscle cramp and is a good team exercise to work on togetherness after a game regardless of the result.

Strength and Power

Strength work is obviously very important to a player’s conditioning. Weights are an integral part of strength training and there is a good variety of weight training exercises for players in all positions. It is important to focus on all muscle groups as it is very important that you have strong stomach and lower-back muscles, then, for upper-body contact, strong shoulders and chest. Obviously strong legs are also vital. Good exercises include squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls and the leg press.

Speed and Agility

In the modern game of rugby working on your speed and agility is important for players in all positions, but it is of particular importance to those players in the backs, and for loose forwards.

Speed and agility drills should be done:

• on different days to other training
• at the beginning of a training session right after a warm up

Basic Sprints:

Mark out a length about 40 meters apart with a halfway marker at 20 meters. Sprint from the start point to the mid point, and then jog on slowly to the end point. Turn and sprint to the mid point then slowly back to the beginning. This exercise should be done in sets of 5.

Cruise/Sprint:

Mark out a distance of 100 meters. From the start slowly accelerate to reach full speed at about 60 meters and keep sprinting as fast as you can until the end.

Hill Sprints:

In a game like rugby, where explosive speed is key, the first few steps are critical.  Running up a slight hill of about 30 degrees, helps to develop your power and acceleration. This type of training should only be done over short distance of 10-15 meters, and you should rest between attempts.

General Aerobic Fitness

General aerobic fitness is very important for the game of rugby, particularly if you plan to play a full 80 minutes. Working on your aerobic fitness off session is key to your success. Jogging in particular and cycling will both help build your aerobic fitness. For coaches you can use our free beep test to measure player fitness coming into a new session.

Nutrition

Certain foods will help you perform better as an athlete. In general here are some nutrition tips for rugby players:

• As with anyone, for good health players should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.
• Starchy carbohydrate foods are not good if you are trying to loose weight, but great for energy for an active athlete, particularly high fibre varieties.
• Protein should be eaten in moderation, but is essential in your diet, as should low fat dairy products.
• It is important to reduce the amount of fatty sugary foods eaten.
• As players sweat a lot during a game of rugby, it essential to drink plenty of fluids on game day.

Mental toughness

Rugby is a hard physical game that requires a high level of commitment. It is an important coaching skill to build up the mental toughness of players. Players need to have faith in their team mates, and that the players around them will do their jobs. Players need to have belief in the aims, and strategies of the team. In this way, the team will work much better together. 

Ball skills

Even at the highest levels of the game, handling errors, poor lineout throws, poor kicking skills cost teams games. You can never, within reason, work too hard on ball skills. Backs in particular need to have very good ball skills to keep up with the fast moving speed of the game, and to ensure that back movements are fluid. Kicking skills are also very important for backs to work on; both for tactical kicks and goal kicking. Have a look around the rest of this site for some different ball skills and rugby drills for players.

Technical skills

There is a variety of technical skills for players in different positions.  Most of these skills are important to all players, but have particular value to players in the following positions:

All front row: Scrum, driving, rucking, mauling and general breakdown skills. Strength and power.
Props: Lifting for the lineouts and kick offs
Hooker: Throwing skills for lineouts
Locks: Jumping and timing for lineouts, receiving kicks and catching, specific scrumming skills.
Loose forwards: rucking, mauling and general breakdown skills, strong at tackling.
Number eight: Taking the ball out of the back of a scrum, running the ball in contact. Strength and power.
Scrum half: Strong pass, tactical kicking, fast acceleration.
Fly half: Tactical kicking, passing, positional, decision making. 
Centres: Strong tackle, positional, passing, strong running in contact.
Wings: Speed, positional.
Full back: Speed, positional, tactical kicking, decision making, defensive.

Aim: Ball retention and timing onto the ball by supporting runners.

Description:

Coaching Tips:

Make sure the players are running from depth and taking the ball at pace from the flyhalf. Get the players cleaning effectively through the contact point and ensure the player going into contact stays on his feet until support arrives.

Aim: Develop explosive power from the deck and defensive leg drive.

Description:

Coaching Tips:

Emphasize speed onto and off the ground. Ensure correct body position with the drive. Straight back, good shoulder, not arm, contact, and bent legs.

Aim: Effective clean out technique and ball skills.

Description:

Coaching Tips:

This drill creates the opportunity to correct clean out technique and ripping technique. Ensure the low body position, soild shoulder contact and powerful leg drive are evident on the shield clean out.

Get the player who is ripping to work hard to get off the deck quickly and attack the ball aggressively and that they roll out of the rip the correct way.

Aim: Used for a warm up drill or general SAQ and ball skills.

Description:

Coaching Tips:

Short sharp steps accelerating from cone to cone.
Good low body position when placing and picking the ball.
Accelerate into the ball when picking it up.