During a freezing day last week, I was showing the Year 6s a video in Games titled, ‘How to get better at rugby (without getting better at rugby)’. It was based upon this quote from Irish rugby legend, Paul O’Connell ‘Let’s be the best we can at everything that requires no talent.’ It goes onto highlight what is the beauty of rugby, it is a game accessible to plenty of people because you can achieve a high performance through simple hard work, bravery and positioning yourself in the right places on the pitch. This was a point I reiterated to the boys; you have to work hard to be successful in rugby but there are a few quick fixes you can apply to your positioning to be a much better player. So, with the opening weekend of the Six Nations ahead of us, now is a good time to do some prep with your son to develop him into a better rugby player.

 

As you watch a match together there are some simple elements to highlight:

  1. Look at how different players have different roles and position themselves differently.
  2. Look how the defensive line stays spread throughout the phases and always moves forward as one unit to pressurise the attack.
  3. Look at how the attacking lines stay deep and stay spread out through the phases.
  4. Look at how support players time their runs to run onto the ball at pace.
  5. Look at how low the body positions of players going in the rucks are.
  6. Look how much players communicate through the whole game.

 

Being able to do these things again and again through the course of a school fixture would have an enormous impact on boys’ performances. Enjoy the prep!

 

Next Friday, the half-term finishes with what is always a fun event, the House Cross Country for Year 1-6 in Carlisle Park. It will run from 2.15pm until the end of the day. The school office will be emailing you more information about it. Please do come and spectate.