A wall of defence

WHY USE IT

Give the attacking team no room to go forward with a wall of players, especially from the side of rucks.

SET UP

Three ruck pads, cones and balls. A 10m wide, 2m long box and then a 25m wide, 10m long box.

HOW TO PLAY

WARM-UP

Put a ruck pad-holder 2m away from a defender in a 1m wide channel. On your call, the two come forward and the defender executes a driving tackle at hip height or below onto the ruck pad-holder.

ACTIVITY

Put three defenders at one end of the box with three ruck pad-holders at the other end. When you shout “Go!”, the ruck pad-holders try to get over the end where the defenders are.

GAME SITUATION

Put two pairs of defenders at the corner of the box with four attackers at the other end. Have a 9 run to a nominated ball at one edge of the box. As they run, the defenders come through a 15m gate. As soon as they can, the 9 passes the ball to the attackers, who aim to score over the try line where the defenders come from. Use full tackling and stop if a ruck/maul forms.

COACHING POINTS

• Get in front of your player.
• Close down the space as a solid line.
• Step into the tackle to win the collision if possible.