Rugby drill session to get players rucking from unusual situations

You need to tell your players to get into position early, with their spine pointing straight towards the try line ahead.

Drill set up

• Set out a 10m diameter circle, made up of twelve cones in a clock shape, within a 14m box.
  
  
• The cones nearest the edges of the box represent "12," "3", "6" and "9" o'clock.

Running the drill session

• Place two defenders and three attackers in the middle of the "clock." Give one of the attackers a ball.
  
  
• Shout out a time. The ball carrier runs to the "hour" cone you indicated and attacks towards the opposite side of the box. One defender runs to the "minutes" cone you called out, then defends.
  
  
• Shout out a second time and the other attackers and defenders react in the same way. The idea is that if the attacker is tackled, then the next players in have to ruck.
  
  

Example of how drill works

In the picture above, the coach has called out "3:40." The ball carrier (player "A" in the clock picture ) runs round cone "3" to attack cone "9." The defender (player "D") runs round cone "8" (representing 40 minutes) before trying to intercept the ball carrier.

Develop the drill

• Change the gaps between the first and second set of players, depending on success.
  
  
• Add more players to each side.

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