Ellis Rugby Skills and Drills

The influence of an offload game.   The use of the offload as a means of attacking space is a growing trend. Rugby World Cup 2019 has shown how the top sides have taken this skill and used it as part of their team strategies.   For those who may have read an earlier blog about the ‘Race’ the   offload is a good attacking skill to use against a bigger, more physical side or one that has a strong defensive set up. The offload allows the attack to win the race over the defence who do not have enough time to get into shape and off the line. There are several drills available to use when developing an offload strategy. When looking for some ideas The Rugby Site is a great place to start.   Check out the video by Kyohie Morita, former Japanese international.   One of the best places to start when planning your own drills is to ensure the player throwing the offload gets eye contact with the receiver. While players at the highest level may throw...

Reaction! Good decision makers are often associated with having an abundance of time. This equates to more vision. Basically greater time to see more! As coaches we really push our players to work hard off the ball. What we want are our players to be set early so they have time to see more and thus make better decisions. But then what?   Hesitation can be a real killer when under pressure. ‘Fight, flight or freeze’ are our natural reactions to these moments of pressure.   Let’s look at ‘act or react’. If we work hard we have a better chance that we can dictate what happens next, we ‘act’. This is the perfect world and one we tend to train the most. But following on from a previous blog about the race, we have an opposition who are also trying to set early. Should they beat us then we are often forced to ‘react’. What this looks like can have a massive impact on the game. At some stage in a training session we need to throw in the unknown. Doing this can help...

Missed tackles and their impact. Good tackle technique varies based on the physical attributes of the tackler, position on the field, carrying style of the attacker or even the time in a match. Team policy should include guidelines for these areas. However basic tackle technique comes down to a few key points, for example: Feet close Head up Wrap Squeeze Leg Drive Let’s look at ‘feet close.’   There are many buzz words and phrases that have been used in the past and when properly explained they help players to visualise the correct technique. A personal preference is not to refer to the feet at all and shift focus to ‘ chasing hands’ into the tackle. Understanding what this looks like is crucial. The term I use is ’T-Rex.’ It describes the positioning of the hands like the T-Rex dinosaur. It works well with younger players where we can say “ be a T-Rex not a Pterodactyl ” to illustrate keeping their arms in and up. ‘Chasing’ their hands means don’t extend ...

How accurate skill execution can break down defences. Many matches come down to critical moments. These may be decision making moments or a matter of simple skill execution. As teams look to develop their decision making they often neglect the importance of skill execution. The ability to catch a ball and deliver it accurately can prove to be the winning or loosing of a match. The higher the level of rugby the less opportunities a team has to score a try. Success or failure can come down to a split second.   For example take a ball on the shoulder, adjust it and pass it on OR take the ball early and immediately pass to a player in space. Just the hesitation or need to reload the pass can change a situation drastically. In the instance below, if the ball was caught late and inside the plane of the receivers body*, he may have been hit ‘ball and all’ or have been forced to reload his pass. Both options would have failed to produce the try. Missing a player here was needed t...