There was not enough detail on how to build the ruck, and there were too many passing drills for avoiding the breakdown. This was not realistic for day to day coaching where the defence mostly, easily gets amongst the attackers in closely matched sides. Rucks happen a lot and rucks must be foolproof, over and over again. I would have appreciated a set of ’do’s and don’ts’’ for the ball carrier as he is being stopped, and in detail. The same goes for the nearest players who hit the ruck. The demo squad never got out of a trot and most faults were repeated instead of being corrected. The idea that mauls should be encouraged was intriguing, and the pattern that was demonstrated was useful. More time on that would have been appreciated since mauls are more easy to spoil than rucks. To sum up: This was entertaining, as usual with Graham Henry, but, not very useful for the actual business of playing real games. Advanced coaching should be included, should be labelled as such and should include the latest developments. For example, when Mike Cron delivers lessons on the scrum his CD’s contain details which are not found anywhere else on the internet. I appreciate the concept of this site and have bought 15 videos so far, some of which do the business really well. Dan Carter’s video on decision making in attack used computer graphics very well to help the coach to teach the No.10 to scan effectively. I get sick of the same old same old…make it more difficult, with what works and what does not work these days. Please, some advanced coaching.

I have coached track and field for 35 years, but this year we are starting a rugby team, at our high school, so the boys who are playing and myself, are all new to the game. As someone starting from scratch, I found the video, to be very helpful and enjoyable. Very good for a rookie rugby coach like myself.

“we should avoid breakdowns, keep the ball alive, hold the ball in 2 hands, fix defenders” good to hear it from Sir GH himself!

Great video by sir GH, and would agree the fewer break downs there are the better the game, and as coaches we should be coaching players from a young age how to avoid the break down. But as we know at some stage the break down will be inevitable and we should practice what happens when a break down accours. Some one said to me once, when i drive my car home i don’t want to brake down but i plan for when it do’s beake down. Would like to see another video which goes into more detail of how to deal with the threats at the break down and different clear out techniques.

great vid on how to avoid the breakdown. it gives good ideas at the beginning of a maul. also gives food for thought on areas that we as coaches can develop further. awesome!