Touch Rugby-Friend or Foe?

Tuesday, 2th June 2009Touch Rugby-Friend or Foe?

Scott HarlandLooking at ways to adjust touch rugby to better prepare players

Touch Rugby-Friend or Foe?

I hear lots of coaches lament the amount of touch rugby played by their players either before practice or recreationally. The fear appears to be that the players are developing bad habits and not working on important contact skills.

Let's face it-touch rugby can be fun, but it is a far cry from playing the game and is usually not very realistic preparation for the match on Saturday.

Some basic problems with touch rugby

-The fact that it's TOUCH. It means that a sidestep or change of direction isn't as effective as it would be in the tackle game. What would be a good gap in contact is not enough in touch for a player to avoid the fingertips of the defender.
-It takes the advantage away from the big player and doesn't build the skills of executing and defending the straightforward smash.
-It encourages evasion more than go-forward. Touch will make players reluctant to close distance with the defenders, which might make for good evasion and passing, but will pose problems in a contact game if you don't know when and how to make the gain-line.
- Most touch rugby discourages attacking the line at pace. A major problem in open field attack is the lack of depth to allow acceleration and penetration of the defensive line. Attacking lines in touch rugby are usually very flat and wide.
-Most versions of touch do not allow kicking-a useful attacking tool that gets limited attention at practice and would create more space in the defensive line by requiring some defenders to play deep.
-Most touch games have too many players -usually divided evenly to each side- which leads to a lot of congestion, no gaps to exploit and a lack of opportunities for each player to handle the ball.

But wait-touch rugby isn't ALL bad. It can offer lots of passing and running, decision-making, evasion, defence, phases of play. Certainly there are some ways that playing touch can be useful.

Maybe the issue is not that we play touch, but the WAY that we play it. To look at possible variations that coaches may want to use let's start with the two main types of recreational touch that I've encountered in the Caribbean (and much of the world):

One touch turnover. Also known as Fijian Touch. When the ball carrier is touched possession goes to the other team. Defenders line up 5m from the ball at each turnover. This version could encourage some deep support players for "escape" passes, as well as some frantic throwing around of the ball. Of course, that's not always the best prep for a prop going into a serious smash-up game on Saturday. And it's counter-intuitive that if you intercept a pass and get tagged as you catch the ball possession goes back to the other side. It would be better to NOT intercept the ball and tag the opposition to get possession! When to use this version? Perhaps when you want to prepare a team to play against opposition that are dominant in contact. Could be useful for sevens as well since it pushes players to provide and look for a deep support player to escape pressure.

Go back to the where you were touched and restart. This is the most common form of touch that I see. Runner gets touched, stops, and comes back to where they were touched while the defence and offence reorganize. Then it's either a rugby-league restart with the ball rolled backwards with one foot, or it's a tap-kick restart (though the tap-kick is seldom really a kick and is more often touching a foot or knee with the ball). Sometimes there are a set number of touches after which possession goes to the defenders. This version allows some phases of play so teams can get used to reading and reacting to changing situations. The game gets slowed down by returning to the mark each touch, (which allows defenders ample time to sort themselves out) and the method of restarting means that one or more attackers are involved in the restart while the defenders are all back in the game (how often in contact does the same defender make three or more tackles in a row?).

Variations

So what are some other ways to play touch that might be more useful as preparation for playing contact? Below are a few of the many variations that you might want to consider when using touch rugby to prepare a team.

Change the rules

If you want a certain skill to be performed, require that the skill be used at certain intervals or the team will lose possession. For example, if you want teams to use switches and changes of direction, require that at least once every three touches the attacking team must use a switch or pass in two directions or the ball will go to the defenders.
If you want the team to get used to passing the ball wide to stretch a defence, make a rule that possession will turn over if the team gets touched in the middle of the field or twice in a row near either sideline. Or require that they make two passes before being touched. This will also encourage first receivers to get used to distributing instead of running first and thinking later.
If touch is making your players retreat from pressure and not move the ball forward, add a rule that getting touched behind the gain-line will result in a turnover. Of course, this might deter passing, so add other requirements as needed, such as two passes per phase, etc.
Want the team to practice using tactical kicking and launching counterattacks? Add a requirement that a team gets 4 phases (touches) after which the ball must be kicked. But if the kicking team recovers the ball they get 4 more phases to attack.
Want to teach your players to take on a single opponent but avoid being caught by a group? Allow them to pass after one defender touches them but it's a turnover if two or more defenders touch them before they pass.
Offer more points for scoring with certain players or on certain parts of the try-line.
If you need to practise taking and defending quick penalties/free kicks then play a normal game of touch with a referee that randomly and arbitrarily awards free kicks/penalties and gives a mark some distance from the ball. The teams will learn to scramble to get in position to defend and attack from the quick-tap, deal quickly with sudden turnovers in possession, and learn to be patient with the apparent lunacy of the ref! (I would encourage you to have players rotate through the role of referee for your touch games and other aspects of practice-it teaches the players what it's like to referee and it keeps them on their toes as they respond to the styles of different officials).

Change the field

Changing the width and length of the field alters the way players read and react. If you make the field much longer than it is wide you'll have penetration through the middle with short passes and changes of direction. The defence will need to cover in depth and the attackers will need support and several successful phases to score. If you make it wide and not long players will have space in width and look to penetrate with long passes and one-on-one mismatches. There will be more passes and tries will be more frequent. You can vary between both by playing down the length for two tries then everyone turns to play width wise for 2 tries.

Change the numbers

It is much easier to defend in touch rugby than attack. It takes far more space to create a gap in touch so it takes fewer defenders to cover it. Defenders don't need tackling skills, just the hand-eye coordination to touch someone while running. So how do we address this imbalance? One option is to have more attackers than defenders. I often play with twice as many attackers and have them in three teams. Each team of, say, four players takes a 5 minute turn trying to hold the other two teams combined to the lowest possible score.
Another way to play with numbers is to have "swing" players. Say you have 12 players. You can play 7 on 5, and the last two players to touch the ball on the scoring side (passer and scorer) move to the defending side that now attacks with the ball and 7 players. (If the team with 5 players scores then nobody swings-but it is appropriate to mock the team with superior numbers for being scored on!).

Change the players

Let's face it. Not all rugby players are the same. And touch rugby caters more to the fancy-footed dancer than to the big bashing bruiser. I am often dismayed by the sight of a massive hunk of powerful meat trying a deft miss pass 5m from the try line in a game of touch, when the instinct we want that player to have is to hit the line so hard that only the combined force of the X-men could stop them. So how do we encourage the basher to still bash in touch rugby? Perhaps change the rules for different players. Identify a few "impact players" in a game of touch. The impact players need to be touched by three players before they have to put the ball down or pass. And if an impact player touches an opposing ball carrier it's a turnover (teaches attackers to keep away from strong tacklers). This way bashers can still have an impact by playing their style of game.

Gradual contact

I have been accused of tricking players into playing contact at practice. I change the rules every couple of minutes and gradually work my way into a bit of knock-about rugby. I start with touch rugby with unlimited touches and a dropped ball is a turnover. Then I allow the ball carrier to pass the ball after one touch, but must do a tap-restart if touched by two defenders. A minute or two of this and I allow the defenders to try to hold the ball carrier's arms to stop him from passing after the touch. I then add a rule that if the defenders can stop the ball carrier from passing or getting the ball to the ground it's a turnover (now the ball carrier is struggling to protect the ball, get to ground and place the ball well-hmmm, seems like contact). Next rule change is that once the ball carrier is on the ground, if any defenders can, from on-side, touch the ball with their hands once it is placed then it's a turnover. So attacking support players need to push and block defenders from getting near the ball. Looks almost like a ruck (shhh, we're playing touch!). Now the players are getting enthused by a game that much more closely resembles the game they'll be playing on the weekend-and players are using their unique rugby strengths to succeed (strong players will do as well in this as fast players.) If lots of tries are being scored in this game I keep narrowing the field until 4-5 phases are needed. If you require kicking after 4th phase the pace picks up considerably!

These are just a few of the methods of bending the rules of touch to make it more useful in developing skills and preparing to play contact rugby. I look forward to your comments and hope that you will share some of your preferred variations in this forum for other coaches to see.

Actively yours,
Scott Harland, NAWIRA RDO.

p.s. For your information I have written a shoret description on Flag/Tag Rugby below.

Flag (or Tag) Rugby

Please note that Flag and Tag are commonly used to describe rugby where plastic ribbons are attached with Velcro to the sides of a special belt in such a way that the ribbons can be pulled off and reattached easily. I have organized tag rugby games where everyone had an old sock tucked into each side of their shorts to act as tags/flags. For the rest of this section I will vary between the terms flag and tag, purely in an effort to confuse you.
Flag rugby is an effective tool for building some useful skills for contact rugby. Instead of touching a ball carrier, you have to be able to line up his/her hips, track the flag, bend and grab. Very similar to the tracking and body position that you want tacklers to use just before engaging in contact. The ball carrier can actually get through a small gap if they are coming at pace, and sidesteps work in Tag where they seldom succeed in touch.
There are many ways to vary the rules but the most commonly used laws of Tag rugby are that the game is restarted with a pass (not a tap kick) following a score or referee decision (penalty, knock-on, off-side, etc). You score by crossing the line, no need to touch the ball to the ground (this allows the game to be played on rougher terrain and avoids diving). No intentionally going to ground allowed. Once a ball carrier's flag has been pulled (indicated by the defender holding the flag up and yelling "FLAG!), the ball carrier has three seconds and three steps to pass the ball, after which they return to get their flag from the defender. Once the defender has given the flag back he/she may re-enter the game. Defenders should retreat to their own side of the ball after each call of "FLAG!" but if they are on the wrong side they must not interfere with the pass and can only pull the flag from the new ball carrier when the ball has passed the gain-line. Some places play a 5m offside line on every FLAG, but others only require the 5m space for restart passes. In some co-ed Tag Rugby leagues the teams get awarded double the normal points when a female scores.

-SH