Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby News | Tags: Lions, Barefoot rugby, safe tackling Lynn Evans
In South Africa, many schoolchildren play rugby barefoot. It is not a financial issue. It is because the grounds are so hard boots would be uncomfortable.
It also removes one of the fears of contact: a foot in the face is far less scary than a bunch of studs.
I was interviewing Lynn Evans yesterday who has just returned from coaching for the IRB in South Africa. He witnessed some very interesting training and games, alongside the test matches and provincial games for the Lions. I think he was most amazed by an Under 9s game where the players were barefoot, played 15-a-side on a big pitch, with full scrums and lifting in the lineout. “Apart from the lifting and scrums, the game was like any normal Under 9s game”, he told me, “with the players congregating around the ball.”
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training | Tags: binding, flanker, player centred approach, scrum
Here is a New Zealand coaching video which shows how the angle of the flanker’s bind.
The rugby technique is great, the method of coaching better! Loads of questions and player involvement.
Filed under: Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training, Uncategorized | Tags: good rugby technique, Jaque Fourie, scoring tries
When Jacque Fourie went over for the South African’s third try, he exhibited good technique:
1. He drives low for the line.
2. He holds the ball in the outside arm.
3. He keeps his neck in a neutral position, with his core tensed. His legs are straight and toes pointed.
I don’t know his training routines, but I doubt that he has been coaching explicitly to do all these things to score a try. He has probably worked some of them out for himself, like the outside arm for the ball (though it is right arm, so that might be just luck).
How often has he practised diving for the line? Our kickers spend ours in front of the posts practising. By that token our try scorers should be doing at least a small percentage of this work.
Here is a Smart Session for scoring tries, which might help.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, rugby defence | Tags: Brian O'Driscoll, defence, defensive systems, Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie, JP Pieterson, Luke Fitzgerald, Ronan O'Gara, South Africa, the Lions
When the Lions look back on the second test against the Springboks, they will rue three crucial moments in defence.
1. Luke Fitzgerald: He was covering the 12 channel from the lineout and failed to step inside as Paul Wallace stepped across. Wallace was in the 10 channel, stepped into take Fourie du Preez peeling around the edge of the lineout. A gap opened up and JP Pieterson raced through. It was a defensive system failure because they needed to communicate and move across together.
2. Brian O’Driscoll: O’Driscoll is a very good defender, but also tends to race up. And so he did for the second try from South Africa, creating a dog leg. A defensive system error, and with Bryan Habana racing onto the ball, fatal.
3. Ronan O’Gara: When Jacque Fourie barrelled towards the line, the admittedly dazed O’Gara, crumpled under the tackle. An individual defensive error.
As one of my coaching colleagues said to me, that was school 1st XV stuff. Tough analysis, but unfortunately at the top level, it is the difference between winning and losing a test series.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Fitness | Tags: Bryn Palmer, conditioning, rugby fun, Th Lions
On a long tour, certain characters make a real difference.
Here is a really interesting interview that Bryn Palmer, the BBC sports blogger had with Paul Stridgeon, a key conditioner with current Lions.
‘Bobby’ keeps the Lions in mint condition
Bryn Palmer | 14:44 PM, Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Cape Town, Wednesday
The Lions have embraced most of the challenges they have encountered on this South Africa tour head on.
The on-field ones might have escalated this week, but away from the rugby there remains one that no squad member fancies, despite encouragement from the coaches.
Forwards coach Warren Gatland and defence guru Shaun Edwards have both offered tempting bets to any player who can ‘bring down’ the squad’s physical conditioner Paul Stridgeon, a former freestyle wrestler who competed for England at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
At 5ft 8in and 76kg (12 stone) he is a good deal smaller and lighter than all of them and dwarfed by the “big beasts” in the party, but is proud of the fact that no rugby player has ever got the better of him.
This may have something to what happened to the Lions’ assistant forwards coach Graham Rowntree, the former Leicester and England prop, when Stridgeon started working for the Rugby Football Union last summer.
“Graham took on the challenge when I first started with England, and I killed him in front of all the lads,” he recalled. “They enjoyed that.”
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, rugby defence | Tags: All Black coaching, Pat Lam, rugby tackle
Here is an excellent video clip from Pat Lam from the New Zealand coaching toolbox. He explains the key technqiues for the rugby tackle.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Refereeing, Rugby Team Management | Tags: Gethin Jenkins, Lions, Paul Wallace, rugby referees, scrum, selection, South Africa, winning the breakdown
There are two issues in world rugby that most vex coaches at the top level: the breakdown and the scrum.
Each referee interprets the breakdown differently. Many commentators say that referees “guess” the infringements at the scrum engagement.
Therefore you need to pick a team that will win the game given what the referee will do, and not necessarily what the opposition will do.
The Lions have picked a front row that will scrummage, but not destroy the South Africans. What is the point of destroying a scrum if the referee ignores this and resets the scrum every time.
They have picked a pack that will get to the breakdown quickly, so there is less chance of the ball being stolen.
So though the likes of Gethin Jenkins (loosehead) and Wallace (openside) have been on great form, their selection meets those criteria perfectly.
Desperate to play, huddled into the coach, minds in lots of places.
From a club in South Africa playing mini rugby.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Skills | Tags: drop punt, learning from gridiron, spiral punt, US football
These men get a lot of money to punt a ball. So it is worth learning how they do it and how they prepare.
You can use these techniques with your players.
The rugby punt can be a spiral kick or a drop punt, but in American Football a drop punt would break your foot!
Seven sports are battling out to get into the Olympics for 2016. Rugby sevens is one of them.
The iRB think they have a powerful case. See their video here.
They are meeting with officials this week.
