THE INSIDE L INE

Add some Mercer magic to your team, says Sean Holley

1

Floor manager

To practise carrying and offloading, work with live defenders. Get the player carrying the ball in one hand and transferring it to the other to allow them to fend tacklers.

Make tacklers go low so the carrier can practise the step. Building up to live work with tackle tubes and poles helps a carrier visualise how close they need to be before stepping.

Build up to the offload from the floor. Just work on a fall and offload so the player gets used to being orientated on the floor, scanning and receiving a call from a support runner coming from depth and then the ‘pop’ off the floor to the oncoming player. Slowly introduce traffic.

2

Square shoulders

To develop forwards’ ball-playing, work on starting positions, getting in motion and taking the timings of the run off the No 9’s pass. Use a starting zone with cones.

Square the shoulders on the catch to commit defenders, especially for the pass so as to give the support player every chance to cross the gain-line.

Promote the correct timing of the pass by getting two or three defenders to vary their defence in a 3 v 3 practice.

3

Grubber bullets

Mercer will have practised the grubber, just as Justin Tipuric did when I coached him at Ospreys. Use poles and tubes to create gaps to kick through and a coned target area. The kick should be contestable, the ball not crossing the try-line. Introduce live defenders.

Present the ball vertically and kick it at the top so it travels end over end, giving an uneven bounce for the cover defender.