Does anyone know how many players are in an Australian football team?

Does anyone know of any Rugby coaching resources?

• I am an experienced football coach that wants my players to have a contact sport available to them in the Spring season. Our school does not have a rugby team, and many of my players are discouraged from playing the sport because they would have to play with the only local team which is run by our rival high school. We do have interest from at least 20 athletes but no real experienced coaches have stepped up. I am willing to step up and put in the work to get a team put together but I have a major problem - I don't know the sport at all! Can anyone recommend some resources for basic drills, strategy, and whatnot? I can absolutely organize and run drills, but I don't know what skills to emphasize or how to teach them. Nor do I know how to manage a game.

• Answer:

  Through the USA Rugby web site, locate your Local Area Union, and contact them to locate some resources. This is not just handbooks and videos, but some experienced senior players who can help you coach. This is absolutely essential for coaching your forwards. Unlike American football's line play (usually 1 on 1; sometimes 2 on 1) , the scrum is an extremely complicated and highly technical matter, involving 8-on-8 contact. If this goes wrong, people get hurt, sometimes catastrophically. You, *without fail*, have to have qualified instruction from experienced people to teach this and to practice it under expert supervision. It's not a question of good will or trying hard - it's physics: vector forces, conservation of momentum, and strength of "materials" (the bodies of your players). There also are special skills positions - hooker, scrum-half, and fly-half - who will need specialist coaching. You also will find that having some assistants with experience will be the only way forward in the "simple" skills of passing the ball effectively, which must be mastered by all players. Also, because you are coming form American football, you need somebody experienced to help you instruct the players properly in how to tackle in rugby. It is *not* the same as in American football, and done improperly can be extremely dangerous to either or both players. It will be very much more efficient to have experienced assistants on hand than to try to work this out yourself and then teach the kids. Finally, since it appears you are in USA, be sure that you and the school administration are on side with this plan, including with the issues of medical insurance for players and liability insurance for coaches, the school, and the school board (and referees, when you get to games). If this is outside the terms of your underwriter's current information, you will have to get that adjusted. [As a long-time administrator for a senior men's club, I can promise you this insurance business is much harder than you think if you have not gone through it before.] Also, under American terms, you and the school will need to work out the protocols for your non-faculty assistants in terms of access to minors. Played properly and coached well, rugby is a fantastic game and can be managed safely (though "safe" is a relative term, of course as it is in gridiron,also). Mark L.