Purpose of the pattern is to train your mind

Rugby is a chaotic game, no other team sport has more athletes on the field. It is a dynamic game with lots of open field opportunities. Unlike other popular American sports every player has the chance to run, pass, catch, kick and tackle. Adapting new players minds to thinking fast is a difficult time consuming task. There is a lot to take in so I have tried to write down in ways I understand and have coached to accelerate new rugby players decision process.

Words are one way to do this. I made considerable efforts to boil down what I know about the 'elite' college game into terms and patterns any player, team or coach can understand.

Pictures are another way to demonstrate what the pattern looks like. I have culled through the photo archives of the elite college teams in America to uncover remarkable similar patterns of play. It takes some time to find camera shots that capture my specific teaching points, but it doesn't take too much time to see that all elite college teams are playing the same pattern. It is with much pride that I see tactics and techniques we developed at the Air Force Academy be implemented in other elite college programs.

The goal is to play an efficient game, plan several phases out, and limit the number of decision that need to be made. The goal of the patterns are to narrow the decisions a player has to make in any given situation to about three. Another goal is to get players momentum in the right direction. Another key is limiting penalties and other unproductive actions. How many times in a game do you wish you had one extra step to make a tackle, one split second to make a break or to do something spectacular on one phase only to have it break down in the next phase.



Cal, Navy, Army, BYU and other played a significantly different style of play before Air Force won the 2003 National Championships. Having played all of those teams while we were building our championship team we adapted many of their techniques--but the quick rucks, two pod line out lifting, the quick lineout maul, the rapid pace of attack all came from the Zoomie game plan. Cal used to run complex back moves, Army used to run pods of forwards, Navy used to run a complicated defense, BYU used to try and out ruck opponents. Many of the things we experimented with were discarded in favor of a simplified game plan based on the pace of play, the speed of decisions, and a high pressure mentality. Elite teams play this type of rugby because they play against similar teams and learn what works and what doesn't. It takes a long time for these patterns to trickle down to division 2 teams. Don't think its because division 2 teams can't run the patterns because they are not elite athletes, they don't run the pattern because they don't know about them. Air Forces freshman team played the same basic pattern as out national championship side.

Rugby is not about being a better athlete than your opponent its about making faster decisions than your opponent, and forcing them into making poor decisions.

Think faster, think in multiple phases, act faster and have fun winning rugby games.


Thanks Toby