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You’ve got 90 minutes of training, a match to prepare for and a few players carrying knocks. How much can you realistically do to reduce the risk of injury?

Dan Cottrell talks to chartered physiotherapist Chris Jenkins, known online as The Rugby Injury Physio, about practical changes coaches can make with limited time and resources. Chris brings more than 25 years’ experience, including working as Russia’s head physio at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and with Canada Rugby ,USA women’s rugby, Dragons RFC and London Welsh RFC.

They discuss how short bursts of preparation can fit into your session, what a warm-up might reveal about your players, and why knowing a little about their injury history matters. There’s also a frank conversation about strapping, spotting players who aren’t recovering, and creating an environment where they feel able to tell you something is wrong.

Plus, do players really need protein shakes, and is pizza after a match such a bad idea?

Chris also introduces his book, Rugby Injury Prevention and Return to Play, which brings together practical advice on reducing injury risk, rehabilitation and returning to rugby.

Find out more and buy Chris’s book.

And order from Amazon here.

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Refereeing age-grade rugby is rarely straightforward, particularly when you are also the coach.

Dan Cottrell is joined by Advantage Over podcast host and laws expert Keith Lewis to explore how coaches with a whistle can create a safer, fairer and more enjoyable game. They discuss managing players, coaches and parents, applying the laws in context, finding the right position at the breakdown and knowing when to communicate or let the game flow.

A practical conversation for anyone refereeing rugby from tag through to the teenage years.

Five key takeaways

1. Help the game happen
   Use clear communication to guide players, but avoid turning every decision into a coaching intervention.
2. Prepare for the age group
   Check the regulations before the game, particularly when moving between different age groups.
3. Referee the situation, not a script
   Consistency means treating similar situations similarly. It does not mean applying exactly the same response to every tackle or breakdown.
4. Get close enough to influence
   Good positioning helps you see the contest, communicate clearly and make better decisions.
5. Prioritise safety at contact
   Be firm about tackle height, players staying on their feet and keeping heads out of dangerous spaces.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

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Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

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In this episode of the Rugby Coach Weekly podcast, Dan Cottrell speaks to Martin McTaggart, RFU Playing Pathways Manager, about the EDGE framework, a way of helping coaches, selectors and pathway volunteers think more clearly about potential in young players.

Martin explains why current performance can be a poor guide to future potential, especially when players arrive with very different rugby backgrounds, sporting experiences and levels of opportunity. A player who has had ten years of coaching is not the same as a player who has only been in the game for a year, so why should we assess them as if they are starting from the same place?

The conversation explores the four parts of EDGE: Explore, Decision-making, Growth and Effort. These can help coaches look beyond the obvious. Rather than simply asking who is the strongest, fastest or most polished on the day, Martin challenges us to think about what players might become with the right support.

Dan and Martin also dig into the problems with one-off trials, the dangers of bias, the limits of “coachability”, and why better assessment needs “many eyes, many times, many environments”.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

To find out more about our Partner Club offer

CLICK HERE

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!