Contact and Continuity

Having watched a large number of schoolboy and club games recently the major issue for almost every team is the inability to score tries through a succession of good quality contact and continuity skills.

In many cases the success of a team is entirely dependent upon a few key individuals who are either bigger, stronger, faster, more skillful or all of the afore mentioned.

There are a large number of skills and tactics involved in achieving continuity which a team needs to practice and understand so that there can be a link between the set piece and the scoring of a try.

The most common is of course the ruck but even the ruck has a few sub-plots that can be used such as the pick and go, pairing up and driving away together, pop pass to a bursting player, passing to the second instead of the first receiver, bypassing the first two receivers and passing to the third receiver, the first receiver popping a short ball to a bursting runner, and so it goes on.

Using the ruck as the example the coach then needs to make a plan as to what is going to happen once the third receiver catches the ball from the passer, and so on. This is where the tactics come in.

Technically the skills in a ruck are taught. These recover and recycle the ball. Next comes the tactical planning and it is this area of the game that helps with the continuity. The number of teams that use a 'one-off' runner who then struggles to recycle quick or clean ball are numerous and in all reality are a blight on the game.

With this in mind with the focus initially on the ruck aspect of continuity set up your game.

Step 1: Play a Game. 

In a 20m x 20m grid start with a 7 + 2 (9 & 10) versus 5 + 2. The first group (3 or 4) will set the ruck and the attackers need to come up with some options that will get in behind the defence and score a try.

In the first instance you are looking at the attack scoring via a good ruck and a play from after the ruck that creates doubt and confusion in the defence. The object for the group of attackers after the ruck is to get in behind the defence and keep the attack going forward.

Depending on how successful the attack is and the quality of the players more numbers could be introduced on each side.

Step 2: Tactical Feedback. Discuss with the players (and those observing) what they have seen and what they might do differently to make the play more successful.

The coach might prompt with some of the following questions:

How can the halfback become a threat? (quick pass / run at first defender before the pass)

Do you make a different decision based on where the defenders are positioned?

How do you achieve your timing?

What is the aspect of your play that confuses your opponents?

What is the aspect that ensures you are going to penetrate somewhere along the line?

How is your width, depth and angle of run used to create a successful play?

What continuity skills could be used following the next contact situation?

Who is going to be involved in this contact situation? Here have they come from?

This is a very basic scenario but one which needs a bit more thought in most cases than is seen at the moment. Following the ruck there are situations that may require standing in the tackle; mini mauls; passing after the tackle off the ground and so on. The players will come up with these concepts and introduce them in to their activities.

Step 3: Skills Feedback:  There are the basic skills associated with the ruck plus passing and catching. Then there are the skills associated, scanning and decision making, timing the run, stepping in to space and so on.

Ask the players what they believe these skills are. Who needs to practice which skills?

In future trainings the coach could set up some activities to practice these skills before going in to the game scenario once again.

Remember: it is the coaches job to pose the problem and guide the discussion if necessary. He must have an idea of what he is looking for so that the activity can keep improving. Then he needs to be able to offer some technical advice to ensure that the players improve. This is what coaching is about.

In the case of contact and continuity there is a huge amount of options so it is important that the coach initially covers off the basic situations that the players devise.

Ultimately it would be great for players to recognise and practice different forms of continuity.

Much of what is required for instruction can be found in the Coaching Toolbox.