Tag Rugby Tips

sodric

Starting new team and playing with only 2 people who have played tag before....we know the basics but I was wondering if anyoe has any tips for defending/ attacking in tag ? We played a friendly and got beaten badly against a team that by all accounts were not that great (In comparisson to the teams that we'll face in the league).
When defending in a line is it better to close up on the opposition in a line or is it better to hold the line?
Any advice appreciated - we need it

aoa321

When you're defending stay in a line - if you can move up to the attacker together that's great, but it takes practice, move fast or slow but everybody move together - whatever you do stay in the line.

If you get the attacking team running accross the pitch in front of your defensive line then that's great, they're going nowhere, tell your mates to resist the temptation to start chasing them about like lunatics - keep your line and leave them solve the problem of how to get through it.

When you have mastered that then move on to dropping a full back further back behind the line, he/she can cover for missed tags or close up the space on an attacker that's trying to get through.

When defending we allow the person marking the ball to have a free reign (within reason).

We haven't worked out how to attack yet - we usually get beaten 1 nil !!

randombar

What league are you playing in?

I've found the leagues to be a bit nuts, unreal quality in the C league!

Reckon soon enough they'll have to start recording players/teams!

Zzippy

Hold the line and you don't have to rush the opposition, just move forward at whatever pace you can still keep in a line. Hold your arms out wide either side of you - it makes the gaps seem smaller - psychological I know, but it can work. Just make sure not to clothesline someone when they do try to get past you! :pac:

tchavan

The main thing is to watch the girls in defence and try to use them in offence. You can get 8 guy tries but if you just let 3 girl tries in you lose. Get girls to mark girls cause girls are more likely to stick to other girls

Mark the space not the player.

Zzippy

tchavan wrote: »

The main thing is to watch the girls in defence and try to use them in offence. You can get 8 guy tries but if you just let 3 girl tries in you lose. Get girls to mark girls cause girls are more likely to stick to other girls

Mark the space not the player.

You say get girls to mark girls, but then you say mark the space not the player?

tchavan

sorry 4 the confusion girls just tend not to run across the pitch so girls Tend to stay in the same space - out the wings. So unless yer playing against v good girls it should work out..... hopefully!

randombar

There are two line ups for any team

x - guy
o - girl

Most common line up is x o x o x o x I prefer the o x x o x x o line up

You have to train your team into marking the opposition girls in broken play.

That is dont worry about a fella sprinting ahead to get a try but sh*t your pants about the girl support following him to get those 3 points!!!

sodric

Thanks, that helps - we have tried keeping a line and we are not too bad at it at all.....we were holding back though (probably too far back) and their players were getting time to build up momentum and dodging one tackle and they were gone, while we were on our heals.

You think moving up in a line and putting them under pressure with the ball and closing off space is best? (obviously it'll prob take us years to get this right)

randombar

As soon as the dummy half puts his hands on the ball, you should move your line up, takes a bit of practice but you'll get the hang of it! the main thing is not to let one fella sprint off and leave a gaping hole, move up together!

Another one, if the fella does get through and you don't have much chance of catching him, mark their girls! Stick to them like glue!!!

brianon

Been playing tag since 2000 so this is season 8

Defending
As has been stated you defend as a team. Arms out. As soon as scrum half touches the ball you should all move up. As fast or as slow as is required to keep a good line.

Mark the girls. Basically if a guy makes a break from like half way then you should be cutting off any chance of the break resulting in a girl try. Very important and one that many teams forget about.

After a tag get back into positions quickly. If you don't then you are screwed.

Attacking
Play to your strengths. If ye can pass the ball about a bit then make sure you only pass when required. Don't over do it on passing. So many times we've come up against decent teams who think they are the All Blacks. Skip/reverse passes look great but only a handful of tag players can execute. More often that not a team who over pass will just turn posession over.

If you want to win then only pass to the girls near the try line. Unless you've got sh*t hot girls.

And the number one rule for attacking. NBR 1, NUMBER 1 !!!! is tempo. Play fast. If you can play at a fast pace and by that I mean faster than the ooposition can defend then they will be at sixes and sevens. If you get tagged then your 1st thought should be to get back to the tag and roll the ball. Basicially we try to get it into our players heads that your role in a move is not over when you get tagged but when you roll the ball.
If you play like this (quickly) then you will not give the oppposition enough time to reset. After a few tags you will see gaps appear and thats how you can make a break/score.

And joint Nbr 1 rule ...use up your tags. See it all the time. Team gets posession. Stupid pass in their own half and bang...posession lost. Up the jumper for first few tags. Get out of your own half.

Advanced tactics
You need to adjust your tactics as a game progresses. If they have a player constantly kicking behind your defensive line then you may have to drop one player back to cover for this. Very important that you have everyone defending in a line to allow for this.

Again, quite often you'll notice a pattern where the opposition rely in one good guy. If so, get your best guy to mark him.

Get them offside. If you are playing quick and the opposition are in offside positions then run towards the offside player. The ref will probably give you a penalty if they (inevitibly) interfere.

In terms of positional setup ... girls on wings in attack. Almost always. 2-1 or 3-0. Keep the guys together as a unit in attack. In defence the girls should pick up a girl each and not get too close to them until the opposition get within about 15/20 metres of your try line.

jdivision

I'd agree with tempo, particularly if you're fitter than the other team, wear them out. Don't worry about picking up tags if you've been tagged, roll the ball back and then go get it. Practice tagging continually, it's a habit, amazing how quickly you lose the technique if you haven't been doing it in a while. Team I set up was poor at it for first few games and we came second last that year, we got the hang of it though and following year won the C league and first year in B we came second. We weren't fittest or most knowledgable but we were universally good at tagging and so we'd win games 5-4 or 9-6. Think we only got into double figures points wise two or three times last year! The girl thing has already been stressed.

brianon

Anybody got any good tagging drills ?

Tim Robbins

brianon wrote: »

Anybody got any good tagging drills ?

Yeah.
Defense drill.

Line up a mock situation. Defenders opposite attackers at a roll ball.
Somone from the attack team shouts: "go left", attacking team all moves 3 spaces to the left. Defensive team have to realign.
Attacking team then shouts "go right", attacking team move right, defensive team have to realign.

Attacking team repeat: "go left, go right", speed it up. The idea all the time is the defensive team keep have to realign (i.e. are realigning as a unit not as individuals).

Attacking team make it more complicated, defensive team have to keep realigning.

Ball is never rolled. Idea of drill is defensive team have to keep realigning as a unit, keep communicating with each other and checking to see they are moving collectively.

Once the defensive team have the idea of defending and realigning they attacking team then do a roll ball.

The hole idea of this drill is to get the message that alignment is the prerequisite to coming up a in a line.

Want any more?

Sabre0001

Defence - If you notice that one of their players has a weak or lofted pass, you could put a tall / speedy player marking them (or the space in between them and the next player) to intercept

Attack - Apparently (but I haven't seen it) a good tactic is to take a tag, roll quick move forward, take tag, repeat - the goal is to catch the defensive line offside.

Also, try to take quick taps - catches other team unawares.

Sometimes, depending on the level you are playing at, looking to a player beside and faking a pass works wonders (then stop on the line, offload to a girl!)

Tim Robbins

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Attack - Apparently (but I haven't seen it) a good tactic is to take a tag, roll quick move forward, take tag, repeat - the goal is to catch the defensive line offside.

Also, try to take quick taps - catches other team unawares.

A lot of teams try this, but players are only offside if they interfere with play.
refs can be a bit lenient here.

A very effective tactic for attacking is simple switches and dummy switches. Have you tried any of them?

I think attacking options is about spotting what other teams defensive weakness is. A lot of tag teams don't defend immediately behind the marker. This means the dummy half and the roll ball are 2 - 1 on the marker. If the dummy half can drag the marker out and then offload back to the person who rolled the ball, this can work.

Another effective option is for the outhalf to switch sides before the dummy half rolls the ball. It means the defensive line have to realign and if they don't do this as quick as the out half is moving the outhalf will have a gap.

brianon

Tim Robbins wrote: »

A lot of teams try this, but players are only offside if they interfere with play.
refs can be a bit lenient here.

A very effective tactic for attacking is simple switches and dummy switches. Have you tried any of them?

I think attacking options is about spotting what other teams defensive weakness is. A lot of tag teams don't defend immediately behind the marker. This means the dummy half and the roll ball are 2 - 1 on the marker. If the dummy half can drag the marker out and then offload back to the person who rolled the ball, this can work.

Another effective option is for the outhalf to switch sides before the dummy half rolls the ball. It means the defensive line have to realign and if they don't do this as quick as the out half is moving the outhalf will have a gap.

Yeah really important when attacking to have lots of movement. Always have at least one runner to take a pass from the scrum half. The runner can switch sides just before hand also to keep the defence on their toes.
If the defence marks him well then the scrum half can dummy the pass and if no one follows the runner the scrum half can pass to a player now already at near top speed.

A really good tactic is to have a runner attack close to scrum half. Scrum half then fakes a pass to them. Marker and defenders will almost always at least shift their weight to that direction. Scrum half then runs around the other side BUT (once clear of the marker) drives back towards the side where the dummy run was made and the dummy runner is now waiting.
At this stage the defence can often be asleep, having 1) fallen for a dummy pass and b) now assuming play is going away from them so they won't be near as switched on. Scrum half and dummy runner should have some space to play with now.

Nothingcompares

having read this thread ALL i want to do is play tag rugby . I'll play a game of tip later hopefully I'll get an opportunity to use these tactics.

tchavan

Any tips on how to get guys ot pass to girls in a game and getting girls to be there to get passes for the girl tries?

nevskin

always try to draw the girl or guy before you pass the ball, get your team mates into hitting the offensive line at pace, if a gap is there they will get through it. also if you have a good guy or girl with pace and good feet get them to try a pirouette just as they hit the space, this will make the tag almost impossible to grab. Take care to avaid contact or you will be pinged.

Theres a salsa ball for tag players in the sugar club this saturday, should be a laugh- good venue, anyone going?

Tim Robbins

Nothingcompares wrote: »

having read this thread ALL i want to do is play tag rugby . I'll play a game of tip later hopefully I'll get an opportunity to use these tactics.

It's hard getting a team to use them. They have to either have played Rugby or be willing to learn. The dynamics and angles in Rugby are completly different to GAA, Soccer and Basketball and I find that a lot of players coming from one of these sports and can get it all wrong. They play the game as if it's just chasing, get the ball and no matter what try and break the line. After 15 times, they'll make two line breaks or score two tries and think they're not bad at it. But rugby is about always making the best decision. It's rare in a game of rugby you don't have options. So it's about assesing options and making the correct decision.

Tim Robbins

tchavan wrote: »

Any tips on how to get guys ot pass to girls in a game and getting girls to be there to get passes for the girl tries?

Stick your girls on the wings and train them to cut back in if the played inside them runs in front of them.

As for not passing to them, well that either just selfishness or a lack of skill.

One thing that can help is that you can do a offload style pass in tag. In normal rugby you take the hit and then pass to offload, now you can't do that in tag as once your tagged the tackle is complete and it must be roll ball again.

But what you can do, is upon approaching a would be tackler, raise and free your arms. This means when a tacklers comes into tag, your arms are free up around your upper chest and you can pass left or right, i.e. the tackler can't get in the way. If you keep your arms at hip or lower chest height or just in one arm tucked, when the tackler would comes the side he is coming from you can't pass to.
If you are approached on both sides by tacklers, well then both sides are closed off.
So just before the tackle, get the arms, hands and ball up to almost shoulder height to offload. It's a bit like a basketball pass but great for drawing the tackler(s), right in.

Key thing is the passer shouldn't pass the ball unless he has looked at the player.

Any questions further tips required?

Luckycharm

tchavan wrote: »

Any tips on how to get guys ot pass to girls in a game and getting girls to be there to get passes for the girl tries?

It often unfortunatelly comes down to how much confidence the lads have in the girls ability to catch it. The amount of times i see lads make a break a give a simple pass to a girl for them to drop it on the line Then again often seen some girls who are alot better then the lads on their teams.

Basic keep the girls generally on the wings if someone makes a break chase as hard as you can and try and get yourself in space. Often way to do this is to change direction so you are very hard to mark.

Sparky14

Luckycharm wrote: »

It often unfortunatelly comes down to how much confidence the lads have in the girls ability to catch it. The amount of times i see lads make a break a give a simple pass to a girl for them to drop it on the line Then again often seen some girls who are alot better then the lads on their teams.

Basic keep the girls generally on the wings if someone makes a break chase as hard as you can and try and get yourself in space. Often way to do this is to change direction so you are very hard to mark.

Completely agree, guys will pass to girls if they think they will catch it. So the more girls practice catching the ball and the harder they chase to keep up the more involved they will be in the game. They are the basic barriers to getting involved, once girls have that other they pick the rest of it up quickly enough. Girls who concentrate and are willing to learn are invaluable to the team and will see alot of the ball.