Hold your cards close to your cheast!

Graham Henry had some of his set piece strike moves broadcasted to the world thanks to some photographer that through ethics out the window....
With technology heading forward at a rate of knots even at school or club level it is very easy to video tape a game and know the oppositions tactics (generally at this level most teams might have 1 or 2 patterns of play).
Important thing is I think at Club and school level that you don't get too sidetracked with the oppositions strengths and panic. A team I'm assistant coach of has a semi this weekend and our head coach is in a panic as the opposition has a strong and experienced tight 5 and we are missing a few key starting props due to injury etc. The stress of their strength is getting on top of him to a point where he is forgetting that although they have a strong and experienced tight 5 they are unfit and play a 1 dimensional style of Rugby with pick and go's and runners off 9. We have an outstanding backline and a far more mobile forward pack, this to me negates their tight 5 and just means we need to focus on our strengths and be confident as far as a team profile we have a better one than the opposition!
I'm sure Graham Henry is deep down a little ticked off with his tactics being exposed but if he focused on this and didn't move on and adapt he wouldn't be doing his job as coach of the All Blacks! My point being - Hold your cards close to your cheast but if your cards are telegraphed to the opposition don't dwell on it, adapt and move on!

Offloads

Offloading in the tackle

Think back over the past season at how many times your team or an opposition team has made a great break through a player dominating the contact and having the ability to offload the ball to a supporting player. In NZ this is something that comes to players naturally and you will often see a midfielder dominate a tackler and have the ability to free arms and offload a pass. Maybe this is because league has such an influence in NZ and Australia and players are pulling some of the favourable plays they see from the NRL. Some coaches find this sort of play to be to “higher risk” and will not allow players to play this style of rugby.
However if you look at it from another perspective if you can develop this skill and work on the running lines of your support players maybe the reward will well and truly outweigh the risk. Recently I have brought a focus into our trainings around use of a fend and ball transfer with an add on of the offload in contact. The players really enjoyed it and elements were translated into how we played the game on the Saturday following. The keys I see to developing this as a weapon in your teams repertoire are:

Ball Carrier
Footwork in lead up to contact and ability to create and attack a weak shoulder.
Dominating the contact and keeping Feet alive in contact
Ball carried away from the tackler so players have the ability to free arms to pass the ball

Support Player
Eyes on ball carrier and identify if he is attacking defensive player on the inside or outside shoulder
Making a decision which channel to support in (inside or outside)
Head towards the ball carrier late to give defensive player little time to slide and cover the space
Communicate to ball carrier about where he is eg: short ball etc
Receive ball accelerate into space

There is a number of mini unit drills that can be done to develop this within your players but each step creates an individual skill execution and needs to be developed in an ongoing process to get the best result, as they say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”!

My thoughts are develop quality offload opportunities, develop quality support lines and communication you will end up with greater opportunities to score more points and ultimately win more games!