The Two Pass Attack

The majority of attacking play happens in fewer than 2 passes.

Top tier players have the skill to outwork another pass or two, but at the amateur level we often see the big boys catch and crash, and the most athletic kid in the team play at 10 so he can catch and attack.

This is the hardest attacking platform as the default for a defense is to focus on the 1st receiver. He therefore has the most attention focused on him from before he even gets the ball.

Because the 1st receiver has all the defensive focus we want to use him as a playmaker rather than a line breaker.

The scrumhalf passes to a first receiver, who must make a decision under pressure.
Many people don’t like making decisions, they want to be told what to do.
Some practical ways for the 1st receiver to shift the point of attack are to introduce some “Attacking Rules” for your boys.

“One pop” for the forwards running the 9 ball, and “two pass rule” for the backs.

Alot of the time we are thinking only of catching and making meters and so it cuts us off from responding to the options in front of us. If a boy knows that at 1st reciever he HAS to pass, then he actually thinks about getting himself in position to do so, and about who he is going to pass to and when/how to get that guy into a good position.

This allows you to move your star athlete from 1st reciever, where he has all the defenders focusing on him, to the 13 channel where he can attack with less pressure and more space.

Now we can play rugby!

These two rules build upon our ball skills warmup and 3v2 drills that we do at the beginning of every practice.