Rugby coaching drill on picking up the ball

What you tell your players the session is about:

1. Picking up a stationary or moving ball on the ground.
2. Securing the ball either to pass, run or take contact.

What you tell your players to do:

1. Bend at the knees and hips to sweep into the pick up.
2. Place your hands either side of the ball to prevent knock-ons.

What you get your players to do:

Warm-up: Pair up your players. Standing side by side, one player rolls out the ball. The second player follows the ball, picks it up and passes it back to their partner.

Main practice: Arrange a series of columns formed of four players. The first player in each column stands on the touchline with a ball in front.

On your signal, this player picks up the ball, runs out 3 or 4 metres, and places the ball on the ground. They turn to become a defender about 2 metres beyond the ball.

The next player in each column picks up the ball and either beats the defender or passes to one of the support players. The defender can try and disrupt the pass to test how strong the player’s body position is.

The next ball carrier places the ball and becomes the defender and the exercise continues across the width of the pitch.

Developing the session

The training session can be developed as follows.

1. Instead of picking up the ball while on the ground, the player has to fall on the ground, gather and stand up.
2. In a separate exercise, roll out a ball which two players chase after. They challenge each other for the ball on the ground.

Game situation

In a 30m square, two teams of five play touch rugby. Condition it so that if a player is touched, they have to either roll the ball back to a team mate or place it on the ground for a team mate to gather.

If the ball is placed, the team in possession has three seconds to pick it up and continue to play. If the ball is rolled back, then any player can challenge for it.

The first player to get two hands on the ball gains possession and gets to restart with a free pass.

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