...No it's not about marriage guidance - it's about how to create space on the rugby field by 'fixing' your man! To 'fix your man' you must bring the defender marking you under your control and then cause him or her to give you space to use. Unlikely as it may seem this is not very difficult! Picture the scene: You are flying down the field with the ball and there is a defender in your way. You assume that he or she is likely to try to tackle you. If they don't you're going to score. But stop a moment. From the defender's point of view it's not a case of just trying. The defender MUST tackle you. He or she can't do anything else. Tackling you is a necessity! And it is this necessity that gives you control of the situation. If you change vector he must change vector to get into a tackling position. If you step left he has to move to his right. If that isn't control, what is? Now it's time to look at how you can use the control you've acquired. Defenders these days play in channels and each defender is responsible for defending his or hers. Their channel may be anything from 5m to 20m wide, although defending a 20m channel successfully is likely to be difficult. Let's assume in this case the channels are 10m wide. Let's assume, too, that you are the middle player in a three-man attack faced with three defenders. You have no overlap, no extra man. In this situation you have a number of options all made possible because of your control of your defender. For example: (1) You can beat your defender in his channel, or (2) You can set up a situation in your channel where you can pass to one of your team-mates in space. Note that these options require your team-mates to help. They too must control their defenders so that they can't make the crucial tackle. Remember that their control won't be quite as complete as yours because their defenders will also be watching you with the ball. Note too that these examples also assume that there is sufficient distance to set up your move between yourself and the defender. To beat your own defender you must create a situation where he can't tackle you. Thus you must cause him to run where you aren't. So at the perfect distance you angle left, possibly beginning a dummy pass left at the same time, and as soon as he commits to follow you - you can tell he's committed because his left leg will cross-over his right - you step right off your left foot and you're gone. Tricky because the timing has to be very precise but not impossible. To put your left-hand team-mate away you can take your defender to the right side of the channel (meanwhile your team-mate takes his defender left) and pass the ball in front of him when he swerves to the right into the space you've both created. To do this you'll have to make a half-break by getting your hands and arms - and the ball! - to the right of and past your defender and pass behind him as he tackles you. This move is more likely to succeed than a swerve or side-step but it too requires practice, coordination and, of course, perfect timing. Back to Index