Inside and outside clean

Protect your rucks by covering against the “inside” defender in the tackle contest. Have a player who works on the “inside clean” to drive this potential stealer of the ball and the “outside clean” to check the even more savvy defender.

Warm up time: 5-7
Session time: 8-10
Development time: 10-15
Game time: 15-20
Warm down time: 5-8

What to think about

Most “jackals”, the players who steal your ball at the tackle, arrive on what is called a cheat line. They step through the corner of the tackle gate, and reach in for the ball. Because they have not gone over the ball from directly behind the tackler, attacking ruckers will probably not clear them out. Therefore, you need to protect the insides and outsides of the tackle area. It is important the arriving cleaner takes an “L” shape line, so he is square to the tackle contest. Otherwise he will be penalised and not be able to clear away the threat effectively.

set-up

1. Inside and outside support players at the tackle contest must square up and protect the sides of the ball carrier, not over him.
2. Identify the threats and drive them out.

What you get your players to do

Put a receiver about 2m away from a 2m square containing a defender. Get a feeder to pass a ball to the receiver who runs into the “tackle box.” He has a support player on his inside and outside. Another defender runs a cheat line on the inside with the inside support player clearing out this threat (see picture 1).