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The most successful coaches - is there a secret to success

It’s clear that there’s no hard and fast plan to becoming a great coach. However our friends at Coach-logic take a look at some legends in their own disciplines, and how these giants have bucked the trend and are the benchmark that so many others are measured against.

Farrell spearheads the case for the defence

Ireland’s defence was pivotal in their win over the All Blacks last weekend. Graham Jenkins identifies who and how Ireland managed to shackle the most potent attacking team in the world.

How to attack with the box-kick

The perception of ‘negative play’ in rugby is often associated with kicking the ball. The idea that a team which can no longer think of anything positive to do with the ball, kicks it away instead. Analyst Nick Bishop looks at how kicking is now about creating opportunity for the offence, rather than simply to move the ball off the field of play.

How to blind-side your opponent from scrums!

Defence in the modern game is built around the speed at which the defensive line can move up and mount pressure on its opponents. Analyst Nick Bishop looks at when the offence becomes “How can we offset that momentum? How can we take away some of that speed?”.

Is the sport lacking a global star?

In a break during training recently, writer Graham Jenkins took the opportunity to ask a group of his Under 12s whether they had sat down and watched any of the great rugby we had been treated to in recent weeks.

Part 2- How much guidance should coaches be giving to players

The focus of much elite level coaching – and a concept that is filtering to other levels of coaching – is to encourage athletes to become far more involved in their own learning processes.
Coach Logic and Don Vinson explore the merits of this concept in lower level rugby.

The where and when of ‘how to offload’

The offload can be one of the most exciting and rewarding skills in the game of Rugby Union. Analyst Nick Bishop explains how offloading is a particularly valuable skill for teams who know that they will not go into most games with an advantage in physical size and power over their opponents.

Defence Ruck - Practice Plan

In this session Ben goes through the important parts of defending the ruck. From knowing what to look out for and how to execute, Ben recruits some expert knowledge from current players who are doing this ‘out on the field’.

Defence Team - Practice Plan

In this session Ben goes through some of the key components to defending as a team. He goes through some key points around line defence and gets some input from some top coaches we have on the site.

What is Creativity? – the curious case of Beauden Barrett versus South Africa

If the notion of creativity can be summarized in one word, that word would be ‘vision’. Better peripheral awareness and depth perception lead to better decision-making, and from this perspective Beauden Barrett’s game in the recent match between New Zealand and South Africa in Wellington was of interest from start to finish. Analyst Nick Bishop reflects on Barrett’s performance in his latest article.

Part 1 - Learning to Listen to Players Opinions

What is the best way for coaches and players to successfully engage when video reviewing a game? Video recording matches and post match performance analysis is an increasing part of rugby coaching. Video analysis platform partner Coach-Logic discuss learning to listen to players opinion, in the 1st of a 4 part series on Video performance analysis best practice.

Tigers run out of patience after just one game?

Writer Graham Jenkins reflects on the biggest story to emerge from the opening round of the newly-sponsored Gallagher Premiership in England – Matt O’Connor’s sacking as Leicester Tigers’ Head Coach. Is it a one off or a growing trend.