Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: B team selection, rugby game plan, rugby management, rugby mental approach, rugby strategy, Rugby Tactics
Tomorrow night a team I coach will be playing the “best of the rest”. The “best of the rest” are the boys who did not make the Young Osprey U16 squad at the start of the season. They will now have a chance to prove a few points.
This game has many positives.
1. It will vindicate many or all of our selections.
2. It might bring to light a player we missed first time, either because they were not developed or they were just did not do enough when we were making the selection.
3. It gives us a chance to look at our wider squad with a couple of the “best” players rested.
Approaching the game is an interesting coaching exercise. Our game plan will not change from a normal game, but it is mentally a different thought process.
I look back on the times when my team was either playing down against a lower league team or playing up in a cup run.
It was quite a good position to be in when playing against a lower league opposition as a winger or fullback. It allowed me more space and time because often the opposition organisation was weaker, even if my opposite number was my equal. It was often the forwards who bore the brunt of the onslaught!
The key mental attributes were patience in attack and physicality in defence. Not bad approaches whatever your game plan. However against lower league teams, you need to back your fitness, organisational ability and all round skill.
It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the game is. I know my team is very excited, but not half as excited as the boys and their parents from the opposition.
It won’t be a stroll in the park. Dare I tell you the score on Thursday morning.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: All Blacks, rugby strategy, Rugby Tactics, Steve Hansen, WRU
Alun Carter, the former Welsh international performance analyst, gives us an inside view on Steve Hansen when he was coaching Wales from 2002 to 2004.
Hansen, now the forwards coach for the All Blacks, took over from Graham Henry and saw Wales run some of the big sides close. His team almost beat the All Blacks in 2003 World Cup and arguably started the momentum for Mike Ruddock’s team to take the Grand Slam 2005.
Alun Carter’s interview is quite revealing on how coaches can influence a team for better and for worse.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training | Tags: Better Rugby Coaching, BRC, Rugby Coaching, rugby sessions, Rugby Tactics, rugby techinques, Welsh Women
I am working with the Welsh Women’s squad this weekend in Cardiff. I have been allocated a number of sessions to work on rugby skills, techniques and tactics, based on their game plan.
Of course I am not going to tell what the tactics are, but it has led me to check the Better Rugby Coaching archive for the words “rugby tactics”. I put in rugby tactics, but then thought, this is a rugby site anyway, so I changed it to just “tactics” and I got over 40 articles.
Here are the results.
What is my new tactic for the weekend
When receiving a kick off deep in the 22m area, there are normally two options. Secure and kick for touch or long down the side of the pitch, OR secure, run open and either kick long or go for the break.
Struth! That’s four tactics already.
So here is the next one. It is a variation on one of themes.
Secure the ball. Take the ball towards the touchline, but not over the 5m line. From the breakdown, pass the ball behind the forwards waiting to take a short ball to the fly half, who passes it to the inside centre (12). That should give enough space for this player to take the ball forward, kick over the defence and for the outside centre, winger and blindside winger to follow up. The defence will be expecting the kick, will be spread further across the pitch. Risk and reward…what do you think?
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training | Tags: pre-season planning, rugby conditioning, rugby footwork, rugby handling, rugby mauling, rugby planning, rugby rucking, Rugby Tactics
I am just writing out my season plan. On my list I have nine areas I know I need to cover in training:
1. Tackling
2. Handling
3. Footwork
4. Kicking
5. Rucking
6. Mauling
7. Scrum
8. Lineout
9. Match tactics
I am ignoring rugby conditioning at the moment. If I have four weeks, I have worked out that I should cover four areas a week, with match tactics thrown in for the last few weeks.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: hale and paice, post match tactics, pre match talk, rugby comedy, Rugby Tactics, rugby teachers, warm down
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Skills, Rugby Team Management | Tags: 22m, back row moves, backs moves, corner flag, ELV, ELVs, hooker, kick and chase, lifting in the lineout, lineouts, quick throw in, RFU, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Drills, Rugby Tactics, rugby techniques
The ELVs will affect your rugby tactics and you need to decide how you will change your coaching and rugby drills.
Many of us have no firsthand experience of the new laws in action, so it is important to glean as much information from those who have. One way is to look some video footage to understand which rugby techniques you are going to adjust.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: Dan Cottrell, Heineken Cup, Munster, Rugby Tactics, Toulouse, winning rugby
Munster won the Heineken Cup this weekend against Toulouse. Both teams were previous winners and both teams have a distinct style of play.
The Munster side’s rugby tactics were “pragmatic” and “dogmatic”. In other words, they played to win and rarely wavered from the task in hand. Pretty it wasn’t, effective it was.
As it happens, I work in an office with a Munster supporter. She lives and breathes the ups and downs of the team. She will be smiling all week (when she eventually returns) and she won’t think that her team did anything less than please!
Filed under: Better Rugby Blog Guests, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Fitness, Rugby Refereeing, Rugby Skills, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: Rugby Skills, rugby players, Rugby Tactics, Colin Astley, rugby game, rugby coach, rugby conditioning, rugby coach specialising
Once upon a time while in discussion about our wonderful game of rugby, a “non-believer” couldn’t see the point of continuously running across the field to a breakdown. Why not? Because on arriving at there, you simply see the ball go back in the opposite direction, so you have to run to where you have come from.
Of course, I defended the nature of our game to the hilt, but in the cold light of the day and many years of thinking about it, I think the “non- believer” could have had a valued point. And that this has broad implications for rugby coaching at a grass roots level.
One of my pastimes in the name of research for rugby conditioning is noting how long into the game it takes the front row, then the second row and then, dare I say, the back row to start walking following a set piece. This “research” is only carried out at grassroots and lower league games, as the higher the standard you go the more physically impossible it is due to the speed of the game to be everywhere, even back rows.
Nick Tatalias, a rugby coach specialising in contact conditioning, has an interesting theory about this. Quoting from an article by him:
“The players seen standing on the fringes of the rucks and mauls with hands on knees breathing hard are tired because they are recruiting a much higher percentage of their muscles in each encounter than the opposition players.”
He goes on to say that typically the conditioning coach sees this happening and prescribes more aerobic type conditioning, but that this further exacerbates the problem.
What Nick is saying is that if you are using nearly all your strength in the scrum, there’s nothing left in the tank for work around the field. So he prescribes that greater levels of strength are needed, better anaerobic conditioning and lastly sprint endurance.
But what about the social rugby XVs that are pulled together each weekend? To them the mere mention of training is a swear word.
Well help is at hand for you to conserve even more energy and put an end to running across the pitch only to see the ball move away in the distance. This can be done in various ways to best suit your team but basically it’s like this. Instead of having your forwards trundling or walking across the pitch to the breakdown, but really only getting in the way of the backs, have them stay in channels after a set piece, working up and down the pitch as opposed to across it.
For instance, and depending on who’s attacking or defending, have your front and second rows stand near to or behind or in front of the centres and wings, leaving your back row to cover the entire field. Or split your pack down the middle and have them work the left and right sides of the pitch, depending on their scrum positions. The variations are endless and you could chop and change during the match to suit attack or defence, making the opposition even more confused.
The advantages of this system, I believe, are that it allows for:
• On the shoulder support for offloading the ball in the tackle, getting players into gaps.
• Doubling up in defence, allowing for two man tackles.
• Mini rucks, ensuring you get quicker ball.
• Secure, quicker ball at the breakdown, as your players get there first.
• More of your players to defend in midfield, giving the opposition less options in attack.
• More of your players to attack in midfield, offering you more overlap opportunities.
• More of your players to cover when a team mate is out of position following a move.
You might be thinking what if the opposition use a rolling maul and you haven’t got sufficient numbers to counteract?
Well rolling mauls are hard to stop once they get going and need to be stopped on the outset. However, with the experimental laws (ELVs) being trailed you could soon be able to collapse a maul anyway.
Colin Astley, www.inno-rugby.co.uk
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby News, Rugby Skills, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: Better Rugby Coaching, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team, Rugby Team Management, Welsh Rugby Union, 2008 Six Nations campaign, Rugby Tactics
Do you want to make a real difference this weekend to your rugby team?
And that means during the game. Here are three ways to watch the game differently so you can pass on some key messages.
Actually I am inspired to write this because I have just been to a talk by Rhys Long, the Head of Performance Analysis for the Welsh Rugby Union. The Welsh are heading the way in terms of up-to-date game analysis and it provided a competitive edge during their successful 2008 Six Nations campaign.
You won’t have access to all their technology, but some of Rhys Long’s analytical processes can help inform you better.
1. Gain line efficiency
A simple scoresheet will tell me how well we are doing at the gain line from each phase. Plus, zero or minus is enough to note down to tell me whether we have crossed the line. If we are not getting over the gain line much from first phase, then I will change the set piece moves. If we are bad at the second phase, then I will question whether players are following the patterns. I will then look again at third phase.
2. Redundant rugby players
Forwards need to make a difference at the breakdown area. They must be “hitting” rucks, not resting on them. If they are not in the ruck, they should be actively involved in the defensive line or offering options to the decision making 9 and 10.
Not active? Then they are redundant. I will be sending on a sharp reminder.
3. Tackle systems not tackles missed
If a rugby player attempts and misses a tackle, there is little you can do as a coach to change that. But you should be not be watching for missed tackles. If the line break was made due to a defensive system error, then you can correct that. Either remind players of the system or change the system.
In summary, I will just note “+”, “-“ or “0” for every attacking phase. I will check that all the forwards are making a difference. In defence, I will note whether any opposition line break is because we have failed to follow the system.
Then I can change the rugby tactics and make the difference.
