The contact triangle

Develop quick thinking under pressure to ensure the players make good and accurate decisions in contact. Once the first defender is beaten, the attacker has to decide whether they can offload the ball or have to take contact. 

ACTIVITY

1. Put three pad holders in a 5m triangle, one on each corner.
2. A ball carrier runs with a support player at the front pad holder. Using footwork and a fend they go left or right. They then go into the next pad, use leg drive and offloads or presents the ball.
3. The support player takes the pass or clears the threat (pad).

DEVELOPMENTS

1. Progress this by having a ruck pad at the front of the triangle with the two other players in tackle suits who will use a low tackle or a chest-high tackle. 
2. The support player either takes the offload (on the low tackle) or latches onto the ball carrier in the high tackle scenario.
3. Or try having a pad on one side (cleanout) and tackle suit (offload) on the other.

1. Finally, put tacklers on the back two corners, add two ruck pads about 2m behind the tacklers and have two support players with the ball carrier. 
2. When the ball carrier beats the first pad, the coach will call out “0”, “1” or “2” to determine how many additional defenders enter the ruck once the ball carrier goes into the tackle. 
3. The support players must decide how to deal with the different numbers and defensive threats. 
4. You can make these ruck-pad holders into suit wearers.

TECHNIQUE

• Spin, footwork or fend to get to the edge of the tackler.
• Fight to the ground before presenting the ball.
• Go over the ball when clearing out the threat.