[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]I[/su_dropcap]t’s easy to blame the hooker for continued lineout issues during a game. It’s fun, too. As tempting as it is to repeatedly shout at them that they’re the only player on the team who can throw the ball forward and they still can’t get it right, a lineout going wrong is a lot more complex than just blaming the hooker.
Leinster’s PRO14 final win over Ulster at the weekend was done in spite of a wobbly lineout performance that saw them lose four lineouts and run limited schemes for the rest of the game. It wasn’t enough to let Ulster back into the contest in a meaningful way but Leinster’s upcoming game against Saracens will be a different kettle of fish. If Leinster run at 75% off the sideline against Maro Itoje and Michael Rhodes this weekend it could fatally undermine their efforts so let’s have a look at what went wrong.
On this throw, it really looks like Kelleher has blown this but, for me, the blame lies with more with Jack Conan if I were to single out individuals.
I think this scheme required a two-part decoy lift at the front with Van Der Flier stepping in from a +1 position to lift Conan with Porter for a peel maul around Coetzee and O’Toole. The decoy unit would have all struck the maul going infield to pin Ulster’s big hitters (Coetzee and O’Toole) from arriving as second wave defensive hitters.
The decoy unit use a lift feint by Ryan and then a full launch feint by Doris to compress the main body of the Ulster counter launch to leave an unopposed jump for Conan at the middle. Van Der Flier has to sell the take and maul drive at the front with his position as a +1 and then use his pace and agility to step in as a front lifter on Conan as soon as the ball leaves Kelleher’s hands. Conan has to make sure that he keeps a clean “pocket” for Van Der Flier to step into.
You can see Van Der Flier eying up Conan here and waiting for his knees to sink to trigger his lift route in.
But Conan has not been accurate with his footwork. He has compressed too far into Toner and has collapsed the pocket that Van Der Flier needs to step into to lift him effectively.
This was always the scheme because Porter has grips on Conan the entire time. You could make an argument that Van Der Flier leaves the +1 position too late but he’s reliant on Conan triggering him and if Conan is slightly off time and out of position, then Van Der Flier will be even more so.
You can see it pretty plainly on this slow-mo capture of the moments directly before and after the throw.
This is an example of Conan not being accurate with his footwork and blowing the scheme. Leinster would use a variation of this scheme later in the half. It would have much the same action but on a 5+1 with Conan in midfield. This time I’m more inclined to look at Van Der Flier.
If we look at Leinster before the throw we see that they’re stepping off the baseline that Healy and Porter give them in a triangular shape. Ryan is the farthest removed from the baseline and Van Der Flier takes his positioning guide (2m) from him.
I’ll get back to this “triangle” later but on this lineout, it means that Van Der Flier is further away from Doris than he has to be and, as a result, he isn’t in position when he needs to be. This means Doris reaches the peak of his jump late and the ball squirts loose.
Kelleher’s throw looked fine on both of these lineouts from a shape, timing and accuracy perspective but the work elsewhere blew the scheme.
Space To Run
Devin Toner is one of the best lineout forwards in the country, even at 34 years of age. Time usually isn’t all that kind to 6’11”, 127 KG second-row forwards but Toner has done a good job of keeping himself in good nick to maximise his strengths (intelligent calling, great height and wingspan) and minimise his weaknesses (slow over the ground, heavy to lift and limited stride management). By stride management, I mean that as Toner ages he needs more momentum to effectively launch into the air and that means getting a run-up to the launch point. Toner can’t really get that momentum from shorter strides or jumping in place so Leinster have built-in space for Toner to move on their lineout schemes where Toner is jumping or involved in a decoy action.
Watch these two Toner takes and watch for the “lane” that the players create to give him a clean, unbroken stride to the jump point.
Once you spot it, you can’t help but notice it on any scheme where Toner is either jumping or running a hard decoy. The prop at the front will be lined up with the back of the lineout and anyone in front of Toner will be back off the line to give him a clean run through to the launch point.
It’s a way of maximising their output from Toner, who’s primary strength at this stage in his career is what he offers to the lineout as a caller and a regular launch target. The opposition knows that Toner is a key target for Leinster and the “lane” that is built into a lot of Leinster’s schemes creates a two way threat – are Leinster throwing to Toner at the end of destination or are they throwing to the space he leaves behind? Decoding that threat is the key to Leinster’s lineout.
The laneway system can create unconvincing decoy lifts to disguise the launch point along the way. On the below scheme, Toner is running right to the front to be lifted by Healy with Conan tailing him. Ryan does not want to risk breaking Toner’s stride by being in front of him so you see an unconvincing lift feint at Three that stands up O’Connor for a split second.
It’s enough to ensure that Toner reaches the launch point before O’Connor and takes the ball cleanly.
I’m not sure it’ll be enough to throw a guy like Maro Itoje off but we’ll wait and see. Toner’s laneway is also notable by its absence. The spacing is much less pronounced on this lineout aimed at Ryan with Toner lifting from a stride away.
Leinster use Doris to distract McGrath from his lifting duties to create an unopposed take for Ryan. The decoy route from Doris was built into this scheme to disguise Toner’s lack of moment. With no lane to run into, Ulster should know that he cannot be jumping so the only legitimate option is Ryan but Doris prevents a race into the air at the front.
Back in the first half, confusion over the Toner laneway created a botched lineout on a 5 man scheme with a three-man walk up. Let’s have a look at it. Doris, Toner and Ryan walk up late and trigger the movement as soon Toner reaches the mark.
Pretty ugly stuff. Without knowing the call, we can’t know who blew this one but I have a suspicion that it was call confusion over whether Ryan was jumping at the front or lifting Toner at the front.
We know that Ryan thought he was lifting because he’s clearly positioned to give Toner a straight run to the front of the lineout.
When we look at when Kelleher flexed to throw first, Ryan had stepped in and sunk down into a lifting position but Toner isn’t dipping into a jump and Doris is too far away to be a back lifter.
I think that Kelleher, Healy and Ryan thought this was being thrown to Toner but Toner, Gibson-Park and Doris thought this was going to Ryan with Toner lifting at the back for a throw down pass to the scrumhalf.
And while this lineout was blown, it shows the concept behind the Toner lane quite clearly. Anytime Toner moves beyond two strides in a straight line towards the hooker in a five-man scheme, he’s probably jumping or lifting whoever is in front of him. On 7 man or 6+1 schemes, it splits Leinster’s targets to where Toner is or the position opposite to him in the lineout i.e. if Toner is at the front then the target must be the tail.
This lineout shows us the concept quite clearly on a 6+1 scheme.
It’s a fairly basic loosehead loop lift on Doris but Ulster will be disappointed by their lineout IQ on the decoy. Toner’s shortened stride is not consistent with lifting or jumping action and both he and Fardy are facing the hooker.
This kind of action won’t wash against Saracens and Maro Itoje. The question for Leinster is whether or not Toner starts.
He’s plainly an easy target for an inexperienced thrower like Kelleher and his “gravity” in the lineout helps Leinster to manipulate the opposition, especially on 5 man schemes. The problem for me is that his gravity is so great that it reduces Leinster’s options to a binary. Look at this one;
Ryan creates a narrower running lane for Toner mainly because Ryan knows that Toner isn’t jumping on this lineout. Toner’s stride is always going to push out rather than up and the spacing reflects that. Doris is running right behind Toner to link up with Healy at the front and with Porter as the back lifter but that only makes Ulster’s counter-launch easier because it’s in broadly the same position that Toner would have jumped in had he been jumping. Either way, it’s a throw to a heavily contested window at the peak of Doris’ jump.
That isn’t to say it was all bad.
When Fardy arrived off the bench for James Ryan in the second half, Leinster set a nice template with this 6 forward scheme. Luke McGrath positioned himself at the front of the lineout on a peel route with Jack Conan as the ball carrying target in the secondary.
The throw goes to the front – keep an eye on the pass happening on the way down as opposed to at the peak of the jump – and McGrath hits Conan with Van Der Flier animating for the ball to hold in the tail defence and Bent filing back as a pass/ruck support option for Conan. Keep an eye on Toner.
Four minutes later they used the exact same scheme but with a twist. Van Der Flier, Bent and Conan act exactly the same as the previous lineout but this time, the sink pass was to Toner running the same route as the previous lineout with McGrath offering himself as an offload option after the carry.
Tracy’s positioning needs to be more accurate on this one. They used a very similar shape further outfield a few minutes later but it had a hit out to Henshaw as the variation with O’Connors and Bent staying at the tail to keep the passing lane clean.
The errors will be the key focus for Leinster though and it isn’t on Kelleher. I thought his throwing was pretty good on review. Leinster certainly balanced out their throwing targets in this game (Fardy took three, Ryan, Fardy, Doris and Conan all took two) but the use of Toner when Fardy wasn’t on the field exposed them in a way that Saracens will have noticed.
Selection will play a big role as Leinster plan for this week’s crucial game but one thing is for sure, they will need their best lineout performance of the season to get what they want out of Saracens.
