Rugby coaching session for front-on tackling

What you tell your players the session is about:

• Making tackles against opponents running straight at you.
• Preventing the opposition breaking through the defensive line.

What you tell your players to do:

• Get your head to one side of the ball carrier (preferably the outside) and make contact with your shoulders on the bottom of the shorts.
• Let the ball carrier’s momentum take you to the ground and hold on with a tight grip.

What you get your players to do:

Warm-up: Each player, on their haunches, has their arms out. Get them to fall backwards then onto one side. They must then turn, land on their front and jump up. Make sure they fall both ways. This will simulate the “falling” when making a front-on tackle.

Main practice: In a two-metre channel, set a tackler on his haunches. A ball carrier jogs forward and falls over a designated shoulder of the tackler. Develop this by increasing the speed of the runner and making sure they attack both shoulders. Eventually have the tackler standing up to tackle proactively.

Developing the session

The training session can be developed as follows.

1. Change the aggressiveness of the runner depending on the levels of your players.
2. Have two tacklers together, with one going lower than the other.

A game situation

The session can be developed further by playing “break the line”. Mark out a 10m square. Three defenders have to defend a line against two attackers with a ball. Keys are communication and good use of the front-on tackle.

Make sure the tackling team complete the tackle by getting to their feet to contest for the ball. Once the ball is retrieved by the defenders or the attackers have scored, the game is over.

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