Improve rugby players kicking technique

This session is called "the punt" by Dan Cottrell.

What you tell your players the session is about:

• Kicking in open play under pressure.
• Pressurising the kicker and charging down poor kicks.

What you tell your players to do:

• Keep the ball in the middle of your body.
• Strike through the ball so your leg does not go across the ball.

What you get your players to do:

Warm-up: Two players stand 5m apart and kick to each other alternating between feet. Increase the distance once the players are kicking accurately.

Main practice: Three players stand in a line at the corner flag. You roll the ball out into the playing area. One player chases after the ball, retrieves it and passes it to another player who has to punt the ball through the posts.

The third player runs along the line for 15 metres and then turns infield to put pressure on the kicker only.

A game situation

The session can be developed by playing “penalty touch”, a game to improve the length and accuracy of punts.

Pair up your players. One player stands 15m from the halfway line in the middle of the pitch. He kicks for touch as if from a penalty. If the kick makes touch, the second player takes the ball from the point it went into touch, walks in 15m and returns the kick.

If the ball does not make touch, the original kicker has to retire 20m to kick again. The winner is the player who forces the ball to go out on their kick on their opponent’s 5m line. Repeat the game with the second player starting. Then change ends and start again.

This article is from my Coaching Rugby manual, specially created for coaching core skills.