Rugby and Sumo Wrestling

As a coach, I am always searching to learn new things, particularly from other sports. The art of coaching is deciding what the needs of your team are and packaging it into messages the group can understand. I often find that using imagery from another sport can help bring technical aspects of rugby to life.

I was on tour with Yale University, the team I coach, in Japan, and we had the privilege of visiting a sumo wrestling training session. What struck me was how well it related to rugby, particularly the explosive movements from a low position the wrestlers demonstrated as they collided with their opponent, and then the leg drive to maintain the momentum. When watching England continually defend their try line against Ireland’s attacking power plays in the Autumn Nations Cup match, it reminded me of what I witnessed first-hand in Japan. 

When defending close to your try line, it’s imperative to win the collision, and with that, the gain line, to drive the opposition backward. The ‘sumo technique’  is not unique to England, but as you can see from the video, particularly from Billy Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler, they employ similar explosive movements to those of sumo wrestlers to repel the Irish attack. Interspersed with the ‘sumo technique’ is the more conventional rugby tackling style, demonstrated by Joe Launchbury, Mako Vunipola, Sam Underhill, and Ben Earl. All these defensive techniques combined make England a very difficult team to score against.

Check out the video below!