Where to Start

Last week I had a meeting with a coach who had just been invited to take on an age group team a week before the actual season kicked off.
He is no mug, but having been out of the game for a little while and it being so close to the actual season, as well as in his initial chat with the boys discovering that they only wanted to train for an hour each Tuesday and Thursday, it did pose a few problems.
In about half an hour we came up with some ideas that may well be useful to other coaches who find themselves in a similar position.
Warm Ups:  these should take about 10 minutes with a little bit of stretching throughout or at the end. Get a player or two to be responsible for the stretches. There are plenty of kids who have knowledge in this area, and if they don’t there is no reason why they can’t find out about what is required.
One night could be 10 minutes of touch rugby with a twist where a game is devised around needs in the game. For example if players have not been following the ball carrier in to the ruck zone the game might require three players to form a ruck on the two handed touch before the ball can be moved away from that point. The idea is to ensure the ball is moved quickly and so get the players in to position quickly. This might also entail the defensive side having to put two players in the zone so that in a game that would be the tackler and the second man in who is responsible in the game for making sure the tackle is completed and creating pressure in that area.
There are many ideas you could use but a good idea would be just to concentrate on a couple of aspects of the game and hammer away at these.
The second night could be as simple as having sufficient balls for each pair (or three), marking out a relatively small grid that the players have to stay inside as they run around, and within that grid they run  in any direction passing and catching or carrying out whatever skill you have devised.
Skills and concepts can be coached during this activity. You could introduce the correct pass & catch techniques; diving on a loose ball and popping it up to the partner on the burst; speeding up just before receiving the ball and changing direction. The possibilities are limitless.  Keep this going for a number of weeks so that they get confident in what they are doing and they will improve.
Fitness:  They’ll say they don’t want it and they don’t need it, but at the end of the day they’ll be thanking you for doing it. As you only have an hour you are looking at only another 10 minutes so the activity needs to be intense over this short time frame.
Believe me these kids are not going to get fitter playing games where most of them are standing around watching or waiting for their turn. Good old fashioned hard running is easy to organize, easy to monitor, and provides an insight as to which players just might have a tough mental edge about them.
A simple activity might be 150’s down the field and back to the halfway. They then start at the halfway and finish this time at the end of the field. Allow a minute for each 150 before you start the next one with your best runners aiming at 30 seconds and everyone in by 40 seconds.  As you have 10 minutes you could run three of these, have a two minute rest, then run three more.
You could put your players in to mini units and race them against each other over 100/200 metres with each group starting at the same time. If it is 200m you might start each run on 90 seconds. Any fitness booklet will have ideas you can use. My advice is to make it a tough 10 minutes and when they start enjoying it stretch it out to 15! (Don’t tell them that the practice is going for 65 minutes!)
Phase Play Aspects:  As this coach is on his own there is a need to involve the whole group in the activity.  Of course the crucial part of any game is in and around the tackle/ruck. This can be divided up into strategic and technical.
Strategically you need to know what you want the players to do taking the ball in to contact and how you want them to use the ball after it is won from the ruck. Of course there are any number of strategies and techniques and these must keep evolving as the team improve but it is important that this 15 minute block is carried out every training.
The same applies with the defensive aspect. Technically how do the tacklers perform and strategically what do they do around this area.

To develop their patterns divide the team in to two with an even number of forwards and backs in each group. Assuming there are 18 players at training, mark out four ruck areas down the field (50 metres long) and across the field (20/25 metres wide)

(The patterns on this diagram do not necessarily represent where you might want your players to form up. You may also want to put an attacker and defender in the ruck/tackle zone or two of both.)

There will be a ball at each ruck area which both teams will run to on the coach’s call. Before that he might want to go through one or two phases until the group become competent and then increase the phases. The intensity of the defence can be from two handed touches to a full on game for a few minutes.

What you need to plan is the phase play from the ruck. Look at what the big fellas are doing on the television if you need some ideas. There are many variations: pick and go; latching on to the ball runner and driving through with him; the first receiver passing a short pass just before contact; the halfback passing in front of the first receiver to the second receiver who has an inside and outside passing option. Of course there doesn’t have to be a ruck set each time as you may want the player to look for a pop pass. If you have sufficient players you may have a call where the forward passes behind the other forwards to a back. You’ll see this on the telly.

You need to be advising on depth and width; running on the shoulder for a short ball; shifting in to a space to drive between two defenders. Learning about this area of the game is crucial so there needs to be a lot of viewing and reading.
After spending a few nights on the attack aspect it will be necessary to tidy up the defensive side of things. Normally there only needs to be two in the tackle if they are doing their job properly. The next defender can take up a position on the far side and close to the ruck. (‘A’ defender) The next defender will take up a position on the close side of the ruck. (‘A’ defender)

As the players are running to the ruck they will be looking to see where the opposition are heading and they will start to match up against the attack. The B & C defenders will be about an arms width away from ‘A’ and they have responsibilities close to the ruck. They need to know who they tackle and what happens once the ball has passed them. They also need to work together and get up fast. (Read the article ‘Physical domination at the tackle and the corridor of power’.)
There is much more to do but if the coach can get these basic understandings the game will have a bit of shape. Mind you, this is only one way and your team might like to play a wide game and so you could read, ‘Wide attack at phase play’ and make a plan accordingly.

Technically the coach has to cover off on the tackling and attacking (ball carrier roles; first support; second support; pick and go etc) aspects. These need to be studied and can be carried out alternately with the patterns as above or they could be used as a short contact session on a Tuesday or a Thursday night. Plan carefully and you will fit them in. Don’t try to do too much on any one night.

These aspects of play will form an important part of the team’s progress.

Without realizing it the coach has most likely already used 40 minutes unless he is really clever and has stuck to the time allowed. Remember though that it is better to cover off on a couple of things and do them well than a whole host of half covered aspects that are not carried out with any accuracy.

So there is probably about 20 minutes left on each of the nights.

Of course it is vital to have a team run on the Thursday night with about 10 minutes of this involving talking and planning strategies and the final 10 minutes getting some rhythm in to the game. Ensure the players are jogging to lineouts and scrums and demand as much accuracy as possible. Having an opposition occasionally would be most beneficial.

On the Tuesday night the 20 minutes might be used for scrums and lineouts (probably not both on the same night as you’d be too rushed) and particularly with lineouts make sure they are sufficiently expert to win their own ball. The backs can practice their running and passing with a few changes of direction and miss passes. Of course they will have a whole host of ideas that they will want to try out and if it is their idea then it is more likely that it will happen.

As you can see, the less time you have the better organized you have to be. Have fun. Don’t try to achieve too much. Make sure the players enjoy it through hard work and letting them have an input.

Good luck.