North Wales Touch

DRIVING

Obviously it is more beneficial to play the game in the opposition's half of the field, preferably near to their scoreline.  Not only will this allow you to have more scoring opportunities, but it also means the opposition will have fewer opportunities!

When people first take up touch, there is a tendency to avoid being touched by the opposition, as if it is some sort of "cardinal sin" to be caught with the ball.  They end up running laterally across the field looking for a gap that never materialises, so consequently they do not gain much ground.

The touch can (and should) be used as an attacking weapon.  Remember that the defence has to retreat 5 metres after each touch?  Well, if you can recycle the ball quickly enough, you can take advantage of this rule.  That's where Driving comes in.  It involves three attacking players rotating through the roles of planting the ball, acting as half and receiving the ball and running with it.  Trained well and done properly, it is quite easy to make 50 or 60 metres up field on one set of six, which will put you into a good position to run a line attack move.

The presentation below shows how this rotational pattern works.  The key elements of a good drive are:

• Good communication

• Pace and intensity

• Absolute minimum "downtime" (the amount of time the ball is on the floor between being planted by the ball carrier and subsequently retrieved by the half).

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The basic move follows the pattern of "run - plant - half".  Starting at the rollball, the person making the touch and performing the rollball is called the "planter".  The person retrieving the ball from the rollball is called the "half", and the person the half passes to is called the "runner".

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The runner takes the ball at full pace straight into contact, angling in directly in front of the previous rollball.  This player has now become the "planter".  The previous planter, being the more forward of the other two players is now in the best position to become the next "half".  The previous half, after popping the ball up to the runner, retains some depth and then accelerates onto the ball as the next "runner".  All players have now rotated around one position, and this process continues as the ball is worked up field.