Off the Top

Turn a won scrum or lineout into a scoring launch — aligned backs, a strike move that fixes the defence, and a maul that goes straight and stays legal.

Rugby union
Adult
90 min
18–30 players
2 coaches
Effort 4/5
Full pitch
set-piece
attack
backs moves
maul
launch

The PitchPlans coaching teamGAA Award 1 & 2 coaches

Kit: 12 balls, 30 cones, 4 tackle shields, 2 ruck pads, bibs in two colours

Warm-up12 min

Align and Move

Setup: A 30×25m grid, groups of five or six with a ball. Cones marking a set-piece start line and a gainline. Confirm your grade's set-piece and maul laws before you build the contact elements.

How it works: Warm the bodies and the backline habit of aligning together off a set start. Groups set in a shallow attacking line behind the start cone, then move as a unit and run the ball across the grid, everyone timing their run onto the ball at pace and staying connected. Add a simple change of angle so the ball is moved and the shape holds. Woven through it, do the mobility a heavy contact night needs — hips, shoulders, necks. A backline that aligns and moves together in the warm-up is one that can launch a move an hour later.

What to say

“Tell them: 'align off the set — depth and spacing set before the ball moves.'”
“Tell them: 'move as one and run onto the ball — no drifting, no standing still.'”
“Tell them: 'talk your alignment — everyone knows their depth and their job.'”

Easier

Walk the alignment and movement first, so the shape is clear before any pace or angle is added.

Harder

Add a passive defender to each group so the line must hold its shape and time the strike against a target.

Activity16 min

The Strike Move

Setup: A backline of six or seven against three or four defenders on a marked gainline. A scrum-half to deliver first-phase ball. Two-hand touch, then soft shields.

How it works: Build one clean strike move off first-phase ball — the moment the set-piece gives you where the defence is briefly fixed and outnumbered. Start simple: the ball to the fly-half, a decoy runner holding the inside defender, and a miss pass or a switch to put a runner into the outside space at pace. Walk it so every runner knows their line and their timing, then run it against a passive defence, then a live one. The move is not the point; fixing defenders with genuine running lines so a teammate is put through the gap is the point. Drill both sides of the pitch.

What to say

“Tell them: 'decoy runners run hard and straight — a lazy decoy fixes nobody.'”
“Tell them: 'the strike runner hits the line at pace, onto the ball, into the gap.'”
“Tell them: 'the move works because defenders are held — sell every run.'”
“Rehearse the timing slowly first; a strike move mistimed is just a turnover in a nice shape.”

Easier

One simple miss-pass move against a passive defence, grooming the lines and timing with no pressure.

Harder

Add a live, drifting defence and a second option off the same shape, so the 10 reads it and chooses.

Activity15 min

Off the Scrum

Setup: A set pack, or a marked scrum with a ruck pad as the base, a scrum-half and a back-row. A backline outside to receive. Keep the scrum controlled and legal per your earlier set-piece work.

How it works: The scrum fixes sixteen forwards in one place, so it is the best launch platform in the game. Rehearse the options off a stable base: the number 8 pick-and-go straight, the 8-to-9 channel to get the scrum-half away, and the ball off the base to the 10 to run a backline strike while the opposition back-row is still bound in. Walk each option, then run them off a controlled scrum. The forwards must give a stable platform first — no launch works off a scrum going backwards — so link tonight's attack to the safe, square scrum you have already drilled.

What to say

“Tell them: 'stable platform first — the backs cannot launch off a scrum going backwards.'”
“Tell them: 'number 8, pick straight and low off a settled base — do not fish for it early.'”
“Tell them: 'get the 10 running onto the ball with the opposition back-row still bound in.'”
“Keep every scrum square, legal and controlled — the launch is only as good as the platform.”

Easier

Uncontested scrum and one option at a time, so the timing of the launch is clean before adding choices.

Harder

Call the option late off a contested-but-controlled scrum, so the 8 and 9 read and choose under real pressure.

The rest of this session is free — along with 3 more this week.

PitchPlans coaching team

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