Match Fitness drill
Worst-Case Passage Block
Prepare for the longest, hardest passages of a match rather than the comfortable average.
- Time
- 25 minutes
- Players
- 12 to 30 players
- Intensity
- High
- Equipment
- Ball, cones
- Space
- Full pitch or large grid
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
The full pitch or a large grid, a ball, and enough players for continuous rugby - six a side minimum.
How to run it
- Rugby's hardest passages run to about two and a half minutes of unbroken play, and this trains exactly that.
- Play continuous rugby for 90 to 150 seconds without stopping, and if a try is scored restart immediately from halfway with the clock still running.
- Then rest only 25 to 64 seconds, which is the genuine recovery a back-rower gets between the most demanding bouts of a real match.
- Do 4 to 6 passages.
- If output is visibly falling across the block you have stopped training match intensity and started training fatigue tolerance, so end the set.
Coaching cues
- The whistle ends the passage, not the try
- Rest is 25 to 64 seconds and it is timed, not felt
- Stop the set when output drops
Common mistakes
- Letting the rest drift out to 90 seconds or more, which changes the stimulus completely
- Only ever training the 30-second average passage and never the worst case that actually breaks players
Related drills
- Ball-in-Play Passage RunsTrain the exact work and rest shape of a real ball-in-play passage, on your own with a ball.
- RHIE Bout CircuitReplicate the repeated high-intensity effort bouts that decide matches, solo and with no contact kit.
- Tackle Bag RHIE ProtocolTrain repeated sprint-and-collide efforts, which is what separates rugby conditioning from running fitness.
- Rugby Contact CircuitCondition the wrestle, drive and get-up qualities that no amount of running will build.
- Four v Four Conditioning GameReach high running intensity and near-maximum speed inside a game, which full-sided rugby never does.
- Two-Touch Transition GameDrive top-speed and high-speed running exposure by forcing constant turnovers and transitions.