• Achievement Strategies:

Strategies that are outside but complement game planning to enhance performance such a nutrition, planning and strength and conditioning.

• Apply Pressure:

A principle of attack in which the attacking team applies pressure by retaining possession, by being in their opponent’s territory, by playing at pace while at the same time having patience so the advantage is not lost.

• Apply Pressure by Tackling:

A principle of defence that prevents the attack going forward by tackling and which judges the tackle by the degree to which it contributes to regaining possession.

• Attack Line:

From a source of possession this is a line of players across the field who are in a position to threaten the defence and pass the ball to where they have an advantage so that they can go forward and, at least, get to the gain lin.

• Back Three:

The two wingers and the fullback who operate as a unit especially in defence to catch kick options and launch a counter attack. The fullback – “Wings on strings”, usually directs them.

• Box Kick:

A kick made by the distributor behind the source of possession that goes directly forward and is high enough for onside players in the attack to chase and contest the ball.

• Blindside:

The side of the field from scrum ruck and maul nearest to the touchline.

• Breakdown:

The ELV’s have included all rucks and mauls under the category of breakdown. Their function is to create a contest for possession and offside lines so that the team winning the ball has some linear space ahead so that the attack had time to attack.

The ruck is defined as a minimum of one ball carrier and one tackler on the ground and one member of the ball carrier’s team standing over the ball. It can be more than this as players from both teams compete for the ball by binding and driving past the ball.

The ruck is defined as a minimum of the ball carrier and one member of his team and one member of the opposition bound and on their feet. Of course the numbers will be greater should the attack wish to go forward and should the opposition wish to stop them.

• Chip Kick:

A short, high kick, usually over the head of a nearby defender. It is similar to the box kick but made with the kicker on the run hoping to get past the defense line and re-gather the ball.

• Clean Out:

The clean out occurs when players drive the opposition players away from the ball at the contest after the tackle is completed.

• Coded Games:

These are games in which computer experts put all the plays of a given type together so the coaches can watch them all at the same time e.g. all the scrums or all the attacks from ruck inside the opposition 22m zone. The coach should determine the categories and these should be based on the patterns of play and game plan.

• Contesting Possession:

This is the first principle of defence. At best the defending team will regain possession rom kick-offs received, scrum and line-out. An acceptable outcome would be to force the attacking team to a less desirable option, a default option.

• Continuity:

This is a word used to mean many different things but to be consistent in analysis; the definition needs to be more specific. As a result continuity is a principle of attack that refers to the post tackle/ contact, ruck and maul.

• Critical Incidents:

In an episode of play, between the re-start and the next referee’s whistle there will be a single action for each team that has been must responsible for the team’s outcome in the episode.

It enables the coach to focus on what needs to be practiced with most urgency.

• Counter Attack:

Upon receiving the ball the team uses the hesitation in the transition in the opposition to immediately attack.

The ball may be received from a kick or from loose ball in close quarter play often when advantage is being played.

• Counter Ruck:

At a breakdown the cues the defence receives may encourage then to bind and drive past the ball to regain possession. At the very least the re-cycling of the ball by the team in possession will be slowed.

 

• Cues:

These are actions by the opposition that players can react to, to gain an advantage in attack or defence.

These are the core of coaching activities in which decision-making is taking place.

• Decoy:

An attacking player who is distracting the defence as to who they should be defending. Depending on the situation the decoy role can change to penetrator should the defence move away.

• Defence Line:

The defence line is a line of players across the field who are positioned to move forward and tackle the attacking players.

• Distributor:

A distributor is a player who passes to where the team is to attempt to penetrate while at the same time taking running lines to keep his defender honest. If the defender moves away the distributor becomes the penetrator.

• Explicit Coaching:

This is coaching in which the coach tells the players what to do. It is one end of a continuum from coach driven coaching to inquiry based coaching in which the coach queries the players as they perform. The response to the query is demonstrated in the players behavior and not, necessarily, in his verbal response.

Most coaching episodes are a combination of these and are placed along the continuum.

• Field Position:

The position that the play is at on the field plays a big part in determining both attack and defence options.

The position may be rationalized by where the play is laterally down the field (inside the 22m, between the 22m lines, from the 22m line to the attacking goal line) and/ or where play is across the field. The lines down the field can be used but they are less important.

• Functional Roles:

These are the roles that a player in a particular position will perform during a game. Some of these roles will be specialized while others will be skills all players, at some time during the game, will perform. Some skills will be performed more frequently than others and it is handy to determine what the priorities should be for each generic role

• Gaining Possession:

Gaining possession is the first principle of attack. To attack the team must win possession from kick-starts when they are kicking the ball, scrums and lineouts.

 

• Gain line:

The gain line is an imaginary line down the centre of all scrums, lineouts, rucks and mauls. As a result it can be used to measure the success of an attack or a defence based on how far the team gets over the gain line before the ball is contestable at a ruck or maul.

As play develops there will be a gain line at each phase of play.

• Game Plan:

The game plan is the modifications a team will make to their patterns of play when playing to a specific opponent. As a result this is based on the opposition team profile and other factors unique to the situation such as weather, time in the season and the score in the game with time remaining.

• Game Planning Model:

A macro decision making model that, when completely followed through, will enable the team to play as well as they can.

• Game Profile:

The game profile is a mission statement that unifies the backs, forwards and the team as a whole. In attack it is based on field position – red zone, yellow zone, green zone. In defence it is based on the source of possession although field position can be used.

• Game Sense:

This is the ability to adjust to the situation as it happens and go from one role to another and perform the roles successfully.

• Go Forward:

This is the second principle in both attack and defence. The gain line and which of attack determine the success of going forward in attack and defence and defence manages to get furthest over the gain line. Each team will have patterns of play that they will action as the basis of their attack or defence.

Key to this is the way both attack and defence react to the other.

• Grubber Kick:

This is a kick made along the ground by a player who holds his defender, threatens the outside gap and makes a kick with the outside leg into the space behind the defence so the attack can run directly onto the ball,

• Implicit Coaching:

This is coaching in which the coach gives the players an objective and the players go about achieving it, the coach questions the players and offers advice during the session so that, by their actions, they achieve the objective.

• Identities of Rugby:

The identities of rugby are those aspects of play that make the game unique and which must be guarded for the game to retain its unique character. These aspects extend from:

• The “backward” pass,
• The implied offside/onside concept in attack to
• The “full body” tackle to
• The contests for possession and
• The defensive offside concept that ensures a reward for winning the ball to
• The scoring regime and everything in between

• Intensity:

In a game intensity refers to the ability of the teams to keep the game going without stoppage but this meaning is more relevant to training sessions in which an abundance of gear ensures that the players perform the skills of the game time and time again with negligible recovery time. When training as a team putting the game plan together intensity can be generated by having opposed training, using the whole field and having stations about the field from which the team plays in attack or defence. The key is to do this with no stoppages.

• Jackalling:

Jackalling is the ability of the defence to regain possession during the few seconds between the time the ball carrier has to play the ball and the ruck forming. It must be performed by apply who can support his own body weight, in other words standing all be it in a crouch.

• Key Factor Analysis:

All skills have their best outcomes. These are achieved by a list of actions that are the key factors. These are in sequential order and in order of priority.

• Lateral Support:

Attacking support across the field.

• Linear Support:

Attacking support down the field that comes from directly behind the ball carrier.

• Logistical Planning:

The planning of the events that take place in getting the team properly prepared from one game to the next, one competition to the next, and one campaign to the next.

 

• Mental Skills:

The psychological skills that can be used to mentally prepare a player. These tend to be individual and are actioned when the player has the need. They are based on tried and true skills that have been used by players who have found these skills helpful.

• Mini Unit Skills:

The skills that are performed by more than one player, in different combinations as the play continues.

• Momentum:

The ability of the attacking team to speed up play while retaining possession so that their opponents are less and less able to defend. It usually reflects their ability to get over the gain line from each attacking phase.

• Monitoring:

The basis of monitoring is the teams game plan and patterns of play enabling the coaches to analyse play while it is taking place. This may be done objectively, using statistics, or subjectively, using the coaches understanding of what the team is trying to achieve and how it is going to achieve it.

• Obstruction:

Preventing a player from entering play be it to stop a defender tackling or to stop a supporting player in support of the ball carrier.

• Outcome Aims:

Outcome aims are to do with winning or performing better than someone else. They refer to the desired end result e.g. winning a game, even losing by a minimum number of points. They can be highly motivating aims but, as they not under the player’s or team’s control, they are of limited value.

• Overlap

The attack has an overlap when it has more players in the attacking line than the defence has in the defence line.

• Overload:

Increasing the intensity of training so that it is greater than is the case in a game. It is usually done for a limited duration.

• Patterns of Play:

A team’s patterns of play explain how the team will play to get the best result. They are what the team practices and there may be a change of emphasis depending on the opponents but this should not be substantial as the patterns are the result of in depth analysis of the teams strengths and weaknesses.

 

 

• Performance Aims:

Performance aims are measureable setting benchmarks for the performance of the pattern of play and all the skills that are part of the patterns.

• Phase Play:

A phase of play is the play from one contest of possession to the next. So the first phase is the play from the re-start to the first ruck or maul, the second from this contest to the next and so on.

• Play Maker:

The playmaker is the key functional role in the attacking team. It is the player who holds the defence and passes to the unmarked player, the penetrator, who can go forward into and through the space.

• Practice Planning:

After the review of the team’s last game the coaching staff will be able to identify their concerns and aims for the next game. Practice planning is the skill to meet these aims by planning practices in the next period of time. The key aspects are the scheduling of activities and the key coaching points to be emphasized.

• Proactive Coaching:

Coaching in which the team plays to a prescription that will be performed If you are proactive, you make things happen, instead of waiting for them to happen to you. Active means, “doing something.” The prefix pro- means “before.” So if you are proactive, you are ready before something happens. The opposite is being reactive, or waiting for things to unfold before responding.

• Principles of Attack:

The principles of attack are to gain possession to go forward with the support of teammates, to maintain continuity to apply pressure and score points.

• Principles of Defence:

The principles of defence are to contest possession, go forward, tackle to apply pressure with support to regain possession and counter attack.

• Principles of Rugby:

The principles of the game of rugby union are a contest for possession, attack by going forward, defence to regain possession, creating a multi faceted for a range of physiques, skill levels, decision-making abilities and skills. All this being based on equitability so that performance that meets the other principles are rewarded and those that don’t are penalized.

 

• Process Aims

Process aims state how the performance aims are to be achieved.

• Progression:

Practices will follow a progression of intensity from warming up to unopposed skills practice, to passive opposition, active opposition and overload.

• Reactive Coaching:

This is coaching in which the players are taught to recognize the cues of the opposition and react to them. In attack initially from a set piece a move may be pre-planned but even then the move will overload a channel with more attackers than defenders and, so long as the ball is passed to an unmarked player they will penetrate.

In defence they will have to “read” the attack and tackle the ball carrier.

The same situation will exist when competing for the ball at lineout, scrum, post tackle, ruck and maul.

• Regaining Possession:

This is the fifth principle of defence in which the use of support ultimately creates cues that encourages players to go for the ball with reasonable prospects of winning it.

• Reloading:

Reloading refers to the need for players in both attack and defence to back up some distance behind the offside line at scrum, lineout, mauls and especially the many post-tackle ruck situations so that they can move into play with momentum and win the race to the gain, thus creating further momentum.

• Season Planning/ Periodization

A method of planning that covers the period from the rest period after last year’s competition to the grand final this year. It includes technical, tactical, physical, psychological and managerial aspects of planning and the different emphases placed on them through the various phases of planning and implementation.

• Set Phase:

Usually just scrums and lineouts.

• Source of Possession:

The sources of possession are kick starts and restarts, scrum, line-out, rucks, mauls and in general play, turnovers and kick receipts.

 

 

• Strength and Conditioning:

These are physical fitness programmes that integrate strength, speed, aerobic stamina, anaerobic stamina, power, agility and flexibility to meet the players’ demands to be fit enough to play the game.

• Support:

This is the third principle of attack and the fifth principle in defence. They both occur because if a ball carrier can go no further or a tackler needs help to regain possession of the ball other players support him to complete the task.

• Tactics:

These are patterns of play a team plays to against a particular opponent. They are based on the team’s patterns of play but are modified to take account of the abilities of the opposition. Together they make up the game plan.

• Team Aims:

These must be SMARTS aims.

They can be:

• Outcome aims based on results.
• Performance aims based on achieving a measurable performance of the skills of the game.
• Process aims based on the critical key factor in performing a skill in competition.
• Team Profile:

Using the principles of attack and defence to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a team along with their immediate needs.

• Underlap

When the attack line has fewer players than the defence line and only linear support will do by overloading a channel at a miss-match and offloading down the channel.

• Up and Under Kick:

This is the same as a box kick and a Garryowen but it is usually made by #10 and the defence line will have been brought forward.

• Vision

A team, rugby club, rugby union, franchise or national rugby union in planning for a long period of time, a good example is the RWC cycle, can plan to lofty goals and indulge in “blue skies” thinking to get there. Resources add a touch of realism and force prioritization on the organization but it should not impede. It will just take a little longer.

 

 

• Warm Down:

At the end of a game or practice this is the period of time during which the players hydrate, carbohydrate load, light jog to bring down the heart rate and use static stretches for the major joints and muscle groups.

 

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