CanadianRugby said:
So I've recently started helping with a local high school team here. The biggest problem with Canada is the limited exposure people have to rugby before high school, so they don't really know what it looks like. Similarly, while I play and watch as much rugby as a I can, I haven't ever really been coached at an elite level. Just wanted to start this thread for A) coaching tips and B) if anyone has any good coaching websites. I found a few, but I was hoping for some more indepth stuff. Most of the places I found were things like "players should be low in scrums" or "Quick ball is better" which I know already.
Any help would be great.
As I come from a similar background (not a lot of rugby before high school), I can talk a little about what I went through. That being said, I couldn't exactly say my coaching was elite.
I think the most important things to emphasise in that situation are the basic skills (passing, support play, defensive lines, rucking and mauling) and fitness. Fitness makes them realise that the game is serious and it will help them win more games than pretty much any other factor and winning makes players enjoy the game even more.
We did a lot of drills just working on the simple things, such as drawing the man and passing. That one is easy to do, you can do it in the 5 metre line next to the sideline with two lines of your players. Give the ball to one line, two players run around a witch's hat and then come running up at a single player from the other line who has done similarly. That single player has to determine when to commit to a tackle, and the two players have to set up so that the player with the ball draws the tackle and offloads or if the defensive player doesn't commit to the tackle then runs around him.
Another one that springs to mind is tackling and getting up straight away, which can be done by a 'piggy in the middle' type situation where a player has to tackle players running at him from various directions, put them down and get back up again in time to tackle the next. That's good because it works on tackling technique, particularly when exhausted, fitness and being able to get back to their feet quickly in games.
Scrumming will take forever to learn. Its why I never really got out of the front row, even when I was fit enough to play loose. The most important things to teach players when they are scrumming is body position, particularly maintaining a straight back for the front rowers. For kids who haven't scrummed a lot, its very easy to get bad technique which will cause them no end of back injuries, as well as de-power your scrum. I wouldn't worry so much about scrum height in general, as long as you can get your front rowers to have a strong, flat and straight back is the most important thing, preferably with their hips just slightly below their shoulders, as that will make for more stable scrums - which at the junior level is far more desirable than effective scrums.
Keep your lineouts basic to start with. Don't do the dancing and such until you get the players routinely timing their jumps and hitting their throws at the highest point of the leap.
Support play is imperative. I'd start with that from day dot. I can think of some drills which kind of teach it, but none specifically for what I am thinking of. Particularly if you can devise a drill that will get players thinking about what they are doing after they have passed and backing up the player they have passed it to, or getting themselves up after the ruck and over to the next one quickly, then you're on your way.
Speaking of rucking, too often we dealt with that merely from the 'getting to the ruck' perspective, and when there we had little or no resistance to the actual play of rucking. Make sure you have opposition (be it coaches or a shadow team) working to try and counter ruck or pilfer the ball. Players need to be hard at the ruck in training or they won't be in the game.
That's just a few things off the top of my head, mostly stuff I remember or think would be useful. I wouldn't rely on my information over those of more expert coaches, but it may give you some ideas.
