Whisky chasers

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Offer a measure of realism in kick chasing situations where defenders are often accused of taking a cheap shot when blocking. The kicker will be challenged to be accurate while chasers need to work on downing defenders as a unit to gather the ball or challenge opposition catchers. These should be your last orders as Teachers...

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

What makes this slightly different from a normal kick chase exercise is the introduction of “nuisance” defenders in front of the chasers. You should brief them to nudge the players who go past them or run in front of them to make the chase that more difficult. Whether we like it or not, this is a very likely scenario in a match.

set-up

Chasers: Beat the defenders in front of you before concentrating on the kick.
Work together to win the ball, either by challenging in the air for it and then offloading OR by reducing the time and space for the opposition to run back.

What you get your players to do

Put a kicker and two chasers at one end of a 20m x 15m box. Put a defender in front of the two chasers (see picture 1, fig 1). Get the kicker to aim into the target area - preferably with a kick that can be caught – and it must travel at least 10m. The two chasers have to retrieve the ball cleanly, while the defender can disrupt the runs of the chasers before trying to chase down the ball carrier (see picture 1, fig 2).

Two chasers aim to retrieve the ball from a kick that has travelled at least 10m. The defender is a “nuisance” to the chasers before turning to defend.

Development

Put three chasers and one defender in front of them at one end of the box. Put three defenders at least 15m away. Get a kicker to punt the ball at least 15m for his chasing team to retrieve or challenge the catching team for (see picture 2). Finish if the chasing team wins the ball. However if the defence takes the ball, it runs it back to try and score at the kicker’s end. Use grab tackling.

Combining a chasing player with three defenders 15m away. The kicker now has to kick the ball at least 15m, with the chasers aiming to win the ball or prevent the defence running it back.

Game situation

Put four chasers with two defenders in front of them at one end of a 40m x 25m box. Put three defenders at least 25m away. The kicker punts the ball at least 25m (see picture 3). The chasing team has to prevent the opposition team running the ball back. Use grab or full tackling.

With two blocking defenders now in front of four chasers. Three other defenders wait for a kick which must travel at least 25m. The chasing team aims to prevent the defence running the ball back.

What to call out

“Defenders: Do your best to block the runners”
“Run hard to where the ball is going to land before looking for it”
“Get in the air to catch the ball”
“Put your hands high to catch so they have less chance of being impeded”

Dan Cottrell

Dan is a practising RFU Level 3 coach and coach educator. He coaches with the Bristol Bears DPP programme, is head coach of Bristol Schools U18s and the Rugby Performance coach for Bristol Grammar School.

He was head coach of Swansea Schools U15, Young Ospreys Academy, assistant coach with the Wales Women's Team for the 2010 World Cup, director of rugby for Cranleigh School, Surrey. He played for Bath, Bristol, Esher and Clifton, South West division, Gloucestershire and Surrey.

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