DEFENSIVE PRACTICE PLAN

By | April 3, 2016

The aim of the practice is to improve the individual skills and to build these into the team’s defensive pattern.

SELECTION OF DEFENSIVE SKILL ACTIVITIES

Warm Up:

  1. Aussie Rules to open up the players’ view of the game.
  2. Force back to develop catching and kicking skills.

 

Individual Skills:

Live Tackles – have you got tackle suits?

  1. 5m X 5m grid – 5 players, 4 ball carriers and 1 tackler. See how many tackles each player can make in 1 minute.

 

  1. 5m X 5m grid – 5 players, 4 ball carriers and 1 tackler. 3 minutes of tackle and recover with the tackler changing after each tackler. The tackler recovers the ball and becomes a ball carrier.

 

  1. 10m X 10m grid – 1 tackler on one side and 2 ball carriers on the other side. 2 players inside the grid who try and block the tackler from making the tackles. The ball carriers and the tacklers run towards each other.

 

  1. After each tackle the tackler and the ball carriers return to their sides and once there engage in the drill again.

 

  1. The tackler must make 10 tackles before changing.

Team Skills:

Tackle Bag Work:

Work along an attacking line of tackle bags reloading after each tackle and moving one further out.

  1. The running line should be for inside out defence.

 

  1. Rush, steady up but keep the feet moving and accelerate into the tackle.

 

 

  1. Don’t move forward until the defender inside has started to move forward.

 

  1. Variations:
    1. Bounce tackle and reload.
    2. Bounce tackle and take up the space behind the ball then reload.
    3. Put a ball near each tackle bag then bounce and jackal to recover the ball before reloading.

 

Now do these using live tackles

 

Live Set Pieces:

  1. Defence from scrum.

 

  1. Defence from lineout.

 

  1. Reloading drill from phase play.

The advantage of this drill is that the coach can stand in the centre and monitor the team’s defence. It also creates oxygen debt and forces decision-making under this pressure.

 

  1. Use a grid the sides of which are the length of the attacking / defensive lines.
  2. Use the sides of the grid ad the gain line.
  3. The attack aligns inside the grid and the defence aligns along the outside of the grid.
  4. Make sure the defence line remains on side.
  5. From one corner of the grip pass the ball along the attacking line. They try to pass the ball to the last attacker who places the ball on the next corner.
  6. The defence moves forward as in a game and tries to stop the attack before the gain line.
  7. Both attack and defence now re-align on the next side and once they are in alignment the activity continues.
  8. They continue around the grid going from side to side practicing their defence line.
  9. You can call for the activity to be reversed.
  10. You can add a kick option and in defence have a back three.

 

  1. Perform phase play defence from randomn positions around the field. Special focus should be places on defence within 10m from the defensive teams goal line. It is here that the second and third “pillars” can use outside in defence effectively. Turnovers can be added into this activity.

 

  1. Receiving Kick-offs until the team achieves field position in the opposition’s half.

 

 

  1. Counter attack 1

Half the field divided down the centre of the field. 3 teams, 2 attacking and 1 defensive. The attacking teams take turns in attacking their side of the field while the defence defends both teams.

 

  1. Counter attack 2

A second counter attack drill is to use the area from the corner flag to the goal posts down to the 10m line and across to the touchline. One player is in the “full back “ position and 2 groups attack and defence group on the goal line. Because of the ease of defence there should be more in the attack group than the defence group. The ball is kicked from the goal line to the full back and the attack group rushes out in support. Once the ball is caught the defensive group moves forward to defend. Increase width to achieve more of the “city to country” situation.

Warm Down:

Two teams send the number of players the coach calls around the outside of a 20m X 20m grid and enter the grid from the far end to recover a ball the coach puts inside the grid. The team that gets the ball back to the start line scores a point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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