The aim of this article is to outline the basics of the technique for the scrum-half pass from the floor. My recommendations are suggested to demonstrate the fundamentals to facilitate a quicker pass with distance and accuracy. These recommendations are based on the principle of “practice perfect technique’ and being self aware of what the key components are and how they work for the individual. This is key to the most efficient use of the ball.

The scrum-half pass can be coached using the following key factors:

• Consistent address and foot placement
• Low body position (to keep the pass from rising too high)
• Strong wide (very individual) base to maximize weight transfer (helps facilitate sweep to generate distance in the pass)
• Control of shoulders and follow-through with the hands to ensure accuracy (chase the hands).

In terms of bio-mechanics, this pass is like a sling-shot; it has a slow, deliberate start, followed by a long ‘pull’ resulting in the final explosive release of the ball. The challenge for a scrum half is to develop the skill so it is a quicker, more efficient pass while not compromising on accuracy and distance. In short being able to undertake the close skill as quickly as possible without compromising the various components.

When asked what the objective of the pass is, most scrum-halves will reply ‘to get the ball to the fly-half as quickly as possible’. The problem with this is that the perspective is “passing to the fly-half rather than for the fly-half”. Scrum-halves therefore, must first acknowledge their role and responsibility within the team as distributors rather than perceive their pass as an end in itself.

A question often asked is how is a quick pass defined?

I would define a quick pass in relation to the length of time it takes to address the ball to the time it is in the receiver’s hands, rather than the speed a lone of the ball in the air. Lets refer to this as “air time”. Defenders become interested in the scrum half as they approach the ball so speed of thought and action is fundamental from that point on to the delivery for the receiver.

So the outcomes we are attempting to achieve when passing are:-

• Address:- speed of feet and consistency of placement.
• Speed :- reduce “air time” through the hands
• Accuracy:- correct depth & appropriate height
• Distance:- understand and achieve distance required to launch attacks
• Empathy:- passing for rather than to the receiver; ideally passes should fly to make it easier for the receiver to facilitate the next action easily and quickly.
• Support:- after passing the next function is to provide support in orer to maintain quick continuity of play.

In order to achieve the above outcomes it’s necessary to understand and be able to breakdown the specific key factors of the pass to then work on producing a quicker, more flexible pass.

A) Address

An appropriate angle of approach and optimum weight transfer during and following the release of the pass will provide the momentum for a lengthy pass while allowing the use required base to reduce ‘air time’. 

Therefore, understanding how to address the ball will allow the scrum-half to see the receiver while also aligning the passer, ball and receiver.

Understanding the approach and foot sequence (Feet position) dependant on where the scrum half is arriving from, will result in a quicker pass, while the momentum of correct weight transfer through and after the pass will provide the propulsion for greater distances.

B) Feet position

1. Placement:

The rear foot should be placed close to the ball (has to be comfortable; no two scrum-halves are exactly the same) prior to passing. This will facilitate weight-transfer from rear to front foot during the pass.

The two common errors are:

• Straddling the ball, which provides stability but also prevents weight-transfer thus resulting in reliance on upper-body strength and a shorter pass (blocking the ball which is related to alignment points)
• Rear foot too far away from the ball (body not over the ball), resulting in ‘over- reaching’ and falling over & forward after passing, due to the unstable distribution of weight during the passing movement (bending at the back as opposed to sinking at the hips)

2. Alignment:

During the pass the feet should be in line (rear & front feet) with the target. A common error is to place the lead/front foot too far ahead of the target, resulting in the pass being raised and sometimes placed behind the receiver. This is due to the front knee blocking the route of the ball requiring the scrum-half to lift and sweep the ball over and across the lead knee.

3. Base (distance between feet) width:

A wide base provides more stability and the opportunity to swing the ball longer, resulting in great distances. A shorter base is obviously less stable but facilitates the ball moving through the hands quicker (‘air time’). Obviously a shorter base (for speed) will result in a shorter distance due to the lack of ‘propulsion’ a wide base provides, but by modifying the approach through experimentation and practice an optimum base width may be established appropriate to the individual, and substantial increase in the length of pass may be gained. The key for the scrum half is recognizing and being self aware, whether he needs distance to his pass or not.

C. Weight Transfer (Body-height, head & shoulders)

Once you have your solid base the pass requires a low body position, keeping the head down which keeps the pass from rising too high and facilitated greater distance & control.  The two fundamentals are keeping the outside shoulder tucked in to ensure the ball does not open early and ensuring maximum weight transfer by ensuring the chest is over the front knee and the back leg has extension passed 100 degrees. The hands must then look to push through the ball and use the acceleration of weight transfer to generate the majority of the power. The extended arms must “chase the ball” to maximize power and accuracy with the outside extended arm aiming to towards the receiver. The inside arm can come over the ball and the wrist can be used at the end of that movement to try and generate additional spin for flight.

The above components are all applicable to passing from the hands or lineout (as distinct from the ground). There is one key component to consider which is the early catch only adjustments:-

Key adjustment to consider when passing from the hands is the ball should be kept around the centre of gravity (hip height), rather than swept in a pendulum movement. The reason being that the ‘core strength’ of a player is concentrated around this area, resulting in more power and a shorter ‘air time’ through the hands.

With respect to the lineout it is ensuring the scrum half is looking to take he ball in the air early at shoulder height of the inside shoulder so as to use body weight to generate maximum momentum and minimize ‘air time’.

Mike

The key to a successful sevens attacking framework is firstly using the full width of the pitch but recognising as players you need to play within the framework and not explicitly to it as the aim is to score as quickly as possible.  There are a number of sevens principles that you outline your framework around in that everything you must do in an attacking framework must have three options so as a consequence we always seek to operate in triangles.  General framework principles are that in open play and from line outs you look to try and stretch defences to then attack where the space is be that back the other way, out wide or up the middle or where you’ve come from.  Once you decide to engage in this space then you are looking for line break attack.  The system deployed to stretch these defences is known as the pull out system from scrums however we look to run straight line break plays which are basically three man attacking option plays.  These are when the coach and team can be creative.  From kick offs we will look to regain and stretch or attack with an option team play.  Underlying the attacking framework there are certain attacking philosophies that teams need to understand and being meticulous in adhering to and these can be summarised as follows:

• once we have the ball we keep it
• we scan for space and move the ball to the space and go forward with pace
• we pass and run, execution is everything
• quality of pass
• compression and depth
• you play what you see with the ball and in support

Geezer

Sevens is growing in popularity around the world with more countries than ever competing to qualify for the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens, and 37 nations competing in the IRB Sevens last season.

Chairman of the IRB said, “Interest in Rugby Sevens has never been greater. The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens held in Dubai witnessed a capacity three-day crowd of 120,000 supporters, while 50,000 fans attended the final day of the Rugby Sevens competition at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. They will be interested to see how Delhi 2010 works through, in light if it not being a traditional rugby nation.

The IRB Sevens World Series is central to Rugby Sevens’ appeal. Attendance figures at each venue continue to increase year-on-year, while the level of competition continues to set new standards. This year across the eight series tournaments a record 37 nations competed, highlighting the importance of Rugby Sevens in the role of player development. We also saw a new name on the series winner’s cup with Samoa dominating to become only the third different country to win the series over the last 10 years.
Attendance continues to rise at every tournament, with Dubai and London recording significant increases. Hong Kong remains the most popular event, with over 40,000 spectators whilst at the 2010 Emirates Airline London Sevens a total of almost 60,000 people enjoying the event over the weekend – a significant increase on previous years.

Over the past few seasons, there has been a year on year increase in the international broadcast and media coverage, with a record 85% improvement in 05/06 compared to 04/05.   The IRB Sevens was televised by 32 international broadcasters, reached 187 million homes in 136 countries with a potential audience reach of over 475 million and that number is only get bigger.

With the Olympic decision going in favour – ‘2016 here we come!’ the sport will truly go global and multi gender.  The International Series will become an all year circuit and become Cricket’s 20/20 of the rugby game and raises one very interesting question or dilemma for players; Are they going to have to choose to be specialist 7’s players or XV’s players?

I personally hope that this is not the case. I am a firm believer (having seen it succeed at first hand) that 7’s can and should be part of a development for players and none more so than at the Elite end of the game. I just fear that money and non conducive calendars will force players to have to make that choice. We are already seeing some nations establish specialist squads, South Africa setting the pace here and a number of other nations looking at that model. We will have the emergence of new nations due to the Olympic decision for the first time in Russia and China rugby will be on the school curriculum and huge investment into there playing programmes. Then there is USA, where we may find all those failed college American footballers who don’t get drafted decide they fancy a shot at Olympic Gold…watch out world there are going to be some new kids on the block!!!

What will England do? – Personally I want to see the stars of tomorrow today on the 7’s series but I fear that they are already moving away from that model and more towards the Specialist 7’s Squad.

The added dynamic the Olympics brings is how the British team will be picked will they follow the traditional British Lions strategy or will the adopt the GB Hockey model with a home nation taking the lead? – Again I favour the British Lions model so the best playing and coaching team can be put in place and we have the best chance of bringing home that gold.

Interesting times ahead but one thing for sure 7’s is going global!!

Geezer

Mike Friday

 You have to understand dependent on which kick off you receive what your options are in terms of attack.  If a team kicks short and high to you in attack they are looking to put you under pressure. 

The reality is that if you do not seek to just secure the ball and create a contact area and instead look to move the ball away from the kick off competition zone to the players you have located in the backfield you are putting unnecessary pressure on your 3 or 4 players in the backfield as they will be faced with 7 defenders all on their feet coming towards them.  As such on any kick off short you should look to secure possession and engage the defence as quickly as possible to either score or create a positive contact area to then play away.  The attacking formation is crucial as you should look to have one man competing to win the kick off and one man to compete to support the man looking to secure possession either through a lift or a grab and rip situation.  Your third player in the front field should look to go the other side of the ball as a gamble runner in case the defence are successful in knocking the ball back or trying to secure possession themselves.  The catching forward should look to attack straight down the line from which he has caught the ball to either score or create a positive contact situation.  As such should then look to secure possession and then move the ball away from the contact and move into your open play stretch plays. 

Mike

The philosophy around the sideline press in order to utilise the touchline as your additional defender the purpose being to attract the attack down into a dead end in order that you can spring the aggressive tackles at defenders 2, 3 and 4 dependent on attacking options.  To ensure an effective sideline press you must ensure that you are inside the  inside shoulders and that your end man is 4-5 degrees to the touchline dropping off from his inside defender offering the attackers the outside.  At all times defenders must ensure they are inside the inside shoulders until the attack to commit to attack on the outside channel after which the defensive sideline press can aggressively attack the players in front of them.  Recognition of when the attack has committed to the outside and has no options but to engage the defence are crucial to an effective implementation of the sideline press. 

Mike

I thought I would write this week why I think 7’s is a great development tool for a player to develop their XV’s. I also think that development is both on and off the pitch and will focus my points around the professional game and my experiences o the IRB series but the points are true at all levels of the game.

In terms of on pitch skills the nature of the shortened game facilitates the development of players’ core skills.  All skills are magnified and any player weaknesses are therefore easily identified and can be improved.  Players focus on accuracy and variance of passing together with catching, contact skills with and without the ball and one on one tackling.

In attack, sevens educates players to develop their understanding and execution of evasive running, depth, lines of running with the ball, lines of support off the ball and spatial awareness of where to attack and who should attack to utilise the width of the pitch.

Defensively a player is forced to understand angles and how to manipulate in his one on one defence as well becoming comfortable defending in space. Player’s decision processes are stretched to gain understanding when and how to close opposition’s time and space individually and for the benefit of the team.

The players contact skills are pushed to the maximum and sevens forces them to become educated in their understanding and execution with the ball in support and when competing for the ball.

The nature of the premiership requires club training to focus on winning the next match whereas sevens training can concentrate on core skills and understanding.

From a physical and mental preparation the nature of the game requires players fitness levels to be that of a senior international player. Premiership fitness levels are not adequate for a player to excel in the international sevens environment. This immediately gives the development players an insight into the physical dedication and hard work that is required to succeed at the highest level of the game. As a benchmark sevens players need to play at high levels of intensity for periods in excess of two minutes and be able to execute skills accurately and consistently. As a comparison the premiership period of intensity is just 45 seconds of continuous play.

The players need to be physically prepared to play six games in two days. The IRB Sevens requires long haul flights and players have to cope with jet lag, often over 6-8 time zones.  This means the players must become educated on understanding their own bodies, nutrition, hydration, conditioning, different recovery tools and preparation protocols so they are able to prepare appropriately and maximise performance for a series of demanding matches in quick succession.

England traditionally always underachieved at the Wellington Sevens. This tournament is staged in February and player club commitments mean the sevens squad only arrive in Wellington three days before playing in the tournament, following a 26 hour flight in economy class.

Mentally, the players need to develop coping strategies and routines to ensure that they are able to prepare for a game, perform to their potential, recover and rest and then get themselves back in a state of mind so that they are able to do it again.

The series also allows the players to develop holistically and integrate with other players from around the world.  The players experience different cultures which broadens their experience of life.

The IRB Sevens has grown in popularity around the world and this will only get bigger with the Olympic decision, and players are faced with often much larger and noisier crowds than in the premiership. For example in Wellington the England squad play before 33,000 hostile New Zealanders, while in Dubai and Hong Kong they have the support of 30,000 and 40,000 fans respectively.  The Commonwealth Games was sold out with 55,000 fans cheering for home nation Australia who England beat in the pool stages. It is an acquired skill to be able to perform under such intensity which players can learn through participation in the IRB Sevens.

The players also benefit from being part of a small travelling squad, far from the comfort zone of their clubs and families, living, training and playing with players of various ages and experience from different clubs.

As you can see very much a learning experience for a player on and off the pitch.

Geezer

Before we get into the defensive framework it is very important to understand some basic fundamentals around the defensive philosophies when building and understand how to defend in Sevens.  Your players need to understand some key points in order to hang their defensive framework on. 

• You are part of a defensive unit
• Your first movement is always forward
• You must defend from the inside out
• The priority is the area around the ball
• Must condense at the contact area
• You must recognise and defend accordingly

When defending it is important that as a team you understand that your defence is only as quick as the slowest man and as good as the quickest man.  In other words the defence can only move forward or up as fast as the slowest man in your team and it is important that your quickest man is disciplined to remain in line to ensure that he does not leave the slower members of his side.  Other key coaching points you need to consider are when discussing things with your player is that you defend what is happening not what you think is going to happen.  How many times have players said “I thought he was going to miss that tackle” or “I thought he was going to go round him” rather than trusting your fellow team mates to do their job and that you do your job.  It is very important that each defender understands their responsibility in the defensive line and looks after their own backyard first and foremost.  This is summarised by believing your team’s defence as well as your own, the last points surrounding a successful defence is a completed tackle is better than a technically proficient one.  In other words you do what you need to do in order to make your tackle and as you know from looking at the various tackling techniques that are on the ruckingball site there are many different tackles that you can choose from in order to achieve the aim of getting the player and the ball on the floor.  A successful defensive framework relies on four key things: -

• Shape
• Sideline players
• Inside shoulders
• Patience

Watch out for four articles with video clips coming up on Level 2 about the four key factors above.

Mike Friday