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LOGINSoak up tackles
This session will help your players in their reading of situations and not feel afraid to give up ground, as long as the tackle is made.
WHY USE IT
A tackler sometimes must accept they cannot ‘win’ the contact, but still has to bring the ball carrier to ground effectively.
set up
A 5m wide, 7m long box. A 15m box for the game.
HOW TO PLAY
ACTIVITY: A feeder, with a ball, starts by a ruck pad, with an attacker about 2m to the side and a defender behind the ruck pad. The ball is fed into the attacker, who aims to beat the defender and score at the far end. The defender has to make sure they tackle the attacker before they make it that far.
DEVELOPMENT: Add in another attacker, who is just behind the feeder. Add in another defender. The feeder can pass to either player, who can, if they want, offload the ball. The defenders can use any sort of tackle to stop the attack reaching the other end.
GAME SITUATION: Five attackers start at one end of the box, with four defenders in the middle of the box and a ruck pad-holder at the side (around the middle), with a ball. The attack aims to score at the far end. Allow no rucks, but tackled players can offload. The defence has around 7m space to soak up the pressure and prevent a try.
COACHING POINTS
- Tackler: Get in front of the ball carrier and use their momentum to take them down.
- Shape your body to soak up the tackle, so they fall over you rather than you bouncing off with the impact.
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A feeder passes the ball to an attacker, who aims to get to the far end of the box
- A defender comes from behind the pad to soak-up tackle the ball carrier
- The attacker can try to offload out of the tackle
Related Files
- Create a 2v2
- Score a point to the attack for a try and point to the defence for stopping the try, before swapping
- Play 4v3 from a dummy ruck
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Note that the defence has about 7m allowance to soak up the attack
- Allow full tackling and offloads
Dan Cottrell
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