Out of the fire

Passing out of contact is crucial for continuity. Make it part of your patterns of play by developing support roles. The ball carrier knows he will offload as part of the pattern, so the support players should time their runs to offer an attacking threat on to the ball.

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

What to think about

An offload is part of a set play if the support players are prepared to take the correct running lines to take a pass at pace from the ball carrier. The ball carrier must smash over the gain line and free his arms. He cannot do this by lifting his arms through the tackle, otherwise he opens his chest to the tackler. Though all players should aspire to offload in the tackle, some players will be more adept at creating an offload opening by stepping off the line of their run, committing the tackler and then releasing the ball. You cannot emphasise to your players enough the need for speed from the support runners to make this effective. The defence will close up the space very quickly, laterally, and behind the breach. The receiver and his own support runners need to get through and exploit this space before this happens.

set-up

1.  Attack to the side of the defender. Commit him to tackle to open up some space beside him.
2.  Support runner: allow the ball carrier to take the tackle before accelerating through the space left by the defender.

What you get your players to do

Place a defender between a narrow gate of cones, with two further cones, one either side, no more than a metre away. Position an attacker about two metres from the defender with a support runner behind him. The attacker runs between the cones either side of the defender. After taking the tackle, the attacker offloads to the support runner. The defender cannot step outside his cones until the attacker is level with him, ensuring the tackle is low enough to allow an offload.