Rugby Coaching - Sliding Defence
Posted by: Neil in Defensive Drills, tags: Rugby Coaching, rugby coaching drills, Sliding DefenceFollowing a recent email to a few hundred amateur rugby coaches, I asked what their two burning questions about coaching a rugby team were and I was overwhelmed by the response. There were several questions centering around coaching a sliding defence and here’s one of them,
Q. “What is the best way to teach sliding defence? and on the whole,
is this the best defensive structure to use?”
Firstly I would have to say that most professional coaches would mix and match their defensive structure, depending on which area of the field they are in and the quality of their players.
For instance, if you’re in your opponents red zone, you can afford to condense your line and put pressure on them for the first few tackles. As they advance up the field your defence would spread out more and go for man on man. Of course if your blessed with loads of speed in your outside backs then you can afford to leave a bigger gap and trust the ‘Slide Defence’
The main coaching points when teaching a slide defence are:
1. Line Speed
2. Always keep your body position facing forward (never turn sideways to run)
3. You only slide when the ball goes past you.
4. The talk MUST come from the inside man
If these points are carried out you can defend a large space with less defenders than attackers, the emphasis being on the inside man talking and pushing the line out.
With regard to “Is this the best structure to use” I would have to say I would primarily coach man on man and only use the slide if your caught short and have to scramble or you have an abundance of speed in your side and they can afford to condense the line.
Rather than explain the drills I think it’s better that you watch them and look for the coaching points. The first few examples show the slide working fine and the last clip shows how it can go horribly wrong if you don’t get it right.
Give it a try and let me know your comments.
Neil Harmon
http://1RugbyCoach.com
Entries (RSS)
Hi Neal.
Good footage ,at the moment I’m using a compressed defence line . Depending to where we are on the field the team adjust’s accordingly , i.e left corner side in opponents red zone our right side winger pushes in line with the right hand upright and mirrors the same in the right hand corner. The wingers , centre , five eight use an up and in defence trying to push attacking team to run back into a tight A,B,C defender. This defence pattern only works when the outside men push in , if they dont using such a compressed pattern leaves you open to attack down the fringes. If the attack does push outwide the defence requires the ability to adjust which at the moment is a major problem and we are getting caught outwide .
Any suggestions on drills to use for adjustment or even changing style of defence . I feel it is a great sytem that adjusts the further down the field you go , but like all patterns , they are only as good as the team that executes them.
Cheers Dean
ps do you know of any clubs looking for a coach next season???
Hi Dean
Thanks for your comment. To answer your question, you’re right in that the best defensive system in the world will only work if the players carry it off but as I mentioned in the blog post, I would use the compressed defence in the oppostions red zone and start to relax it as they advance up the field.
Try giving your guys markers so the outside backs know they are to be moving further out as the opposition moves forward. For example if they get to the 40/50 they know they should be 10 metres further out than they were in the red zone.
The drills shown can be used with 2 v 6, 3 v 6, 4 v 6, to emphasize the slide technique. Split your defence up into their defending groups, i.e. left side defence, right side defence with the halves and lock fitting in accordingly. The main points that MUST be coached into the guys are the inside man is THE most important because they are the one controlling the slide. (In the last clip you see the winger goes without his centre telling him he’s got his man covered and therefore the winger broke the rule that you only slide when the balls gone past you.)
After running this drill for 5 - 10 mins run a kick off set and get your attackers to spin the ball early to see how your outside backs (and middle) react once they know what’s expected.
Remember to keep coaching the main points and drill them into the whole team.
1. Line Speed
2. Always keep your body position facing forward (never turn sideways to run)
3. You only slide when the ball goes past you.
4. The talk MUST come from the inside man
I hope this helps and I’ll keep my ears open for any coaching jobs:)
Neil
http://1RugbyCoach.com
hi i read your article and was impressed with your explanation and lay out, i am involved with a small rugby union team but im sure i will be able to carry some of this information forward
Neil, Great job. This is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for. I coach the College of Charleston RFC in South Carolina, USA and need lots of help coaching the basics. Some of the guys on the team have never seen rugby on TV let alone play it. When can we get/see more from you? I played for 12 years at club level in England. I have lived in the US for almost 25 years. Keep it up and let me know what else is available.
Dave.
Do you have any tips for building a teams Go Forward capabilities