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Flood the channel

I keep hearing the term flood the channel, what does this mean?

Rugby CoachCoach

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Josh MacyCoach, United States of America

I think flooding a channel means sending two runners into the same gap of the defense. Most rugby defense operates on the idea of one defender marking one attacker, flooding uses that against the defense by moving players into the area occupied by one defender. This is also a very common idea in American Football. I think a common example of this would be when you get 3 or 4 players into the short side 5m channel using quick tight passes or when you have your centers running tight together and bring a fullback or weak side wing into the attack.

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