[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]I[/su_dropcap]reland’s lineout (and maul) has come in for quite a bit of criticism over the last few days in the aftermath of our defeat to England at the weekend and rightly so. When a key set piece doesn’t function in a big game – and against England, it’s always a big game – there’s every chance you’re going to come away on the end of a chastening defeat. With no set-piece, you can’t effectively manipulate the opposition off the top of the lineout or through the maul or through your maul breaks.

So what went wrong? Well, a lot.

In the Wally Ratings for that defeat, I posited that it was less about Ronan Kelleher’s throwing and more about issues with the timing and mechanics of some of our lineout schemes.

These two lineouts look like an overthrow (and they are, technically) but I think the main issue a blown back lift by Ryan and Roux on both occasions that prevent the jumper from hitting the apex coupled with a slightly early throw.

For me, this was partially confirmed in a presser earlier this week, when Ireland’s lineout coach Simon Easterby discussed where he felt Ireland’s lineout went wrong;

“There was certainly an example of us not performing those drills that we did in the week and taking them into the game. What can look like an overthrow to the naked eye can actually be avoided by making sure the guys are consistent in their movement and their jumps so that the hooker has a feel that what he has done all week and puts it right on the money and it looks like it’s slightly off because someone has created that change.”

What does he mean by this?

Let’s have a look at this lineout;

At first glance, it’s an overthrow but, while I think think the throw is slightly off where it needs to be, O’Mahony isn’t getting into the target point – the brief window of time and space that Kelleher is throwing at. When you’re up against a counter-jump, that target window can be quite small so it’s as much about the jumper being “on-time” as it is about the throw. If the throw is in the right spot at the right time but the jumper isn’t, it’s an overthrow. Hold that thought for the time being as I go to another comment from Easterby.

“Myself and a couple of guys in the lineout would meet and discuss the plan for the week, discuss how we want to attack and defend against an opposition, discuss the framework and, for the want of a better word, the menu that we’re putting together.”

What does this mean? It means that Easterby and his primary lineout guys will prepare a set of lineouts for use in the upcoming game that reflects the unique challenges posed by that week’s opponent. Most teams will have a large group of lineout schemes that they technically know but that will be pared down to a block of 4/5 for use in certain scenarios during the week.

What will they have guessed about England during the week that would have been confirmed on teamsheet day? That England had only two counter-jumpers in their starting pack – Maro Itoje and Joe Launchbury. Billy Vunipola, Tom Curry and Sam Underhill are a non-jumping back-row unit on defensive lineouts so, for Ireland, the main targets for deception would have to be Itoje and Launchbury and their lift units.

Now, with that in mind, let’s go back and look at the lineout from earlier – it’s a pendulum decoy that looks to attack England’s primary lifters with decoy launches to open up clean target windows for our two primary jumpers in this game, O’Mahony and Ryan. A pendulum swings one way and then the other.

Watch for the decoys as the pendulum swings; Roux’s lift feint is to trigger Launchbury, O’Mahony’s lift feint on Ryan is to trigger Itoje out of position so that Ryan and Healy can lift O’Mahony for a clean take at the front.

What goes wrong? Itoje’s reaction speed to the feint is outstanding, but O’Mahony still beats him to the launch. The only problem is that Ryan can’t get his backlift position. You can see it on the slow-motion I’ve added on the lift – Ryan is lifting on one side of O’Mahony so the launch isn’t what it needs to be to win the race to the target window.

That’s why O’Mahony attacks the ball with one arm.

On the other “overthrow”, it’s the exact same principle. Let’s have a look at it live;

Notice O’Mahony’s shape at the top of the jump? Identical to the other example. When you look at the other details you see the same lineout concept being used – pendulum decoy.

The first decoy lift by Ryan is to trigger Itoje, the jump shape by Doris is for Launchbury and the scheme is to get Roux and Healy lifting O’Mahony at the tail with Doris, Stander, Ryan and Porter all lined up to drive on landing.

For me, Roux hasn’t got deep enough on his initial lift so he’s having to work extra hard to boost O’Mahony into the target window. Kelleher’s throw is far from perfect but if O’Mahony gets to the target window half a second earlier, he can adjust to take the throw.

One of our other schemes was what I call a pop feint that operated under the same principles as the pendulum decoy but looked to feint out one of the counter-jumpers only by sliding a lifter around a primary jumper at the front to a launch at the tail.

Look for the pop action on both of these lineouts and watch for the speed wobble on our sliding lifters;

Doris goes too wide on his loop route and gives himself too much ground to cover. As a result, he’s not in a position at exactly the time he needs to be to effectively lift Ryan into the target window. On the second example, Stander and O’Mahony step on each other a small bit and that breaks Stander’s stride on his route to lift Ryan. On both lifts, that gives England a slight edge in that it allows them to target our jumper at the apex of his jump while they are in range to play the ball.

They don’t have to watch the ball in both of these plays, all they have to do is get their hands in between Ryan’s and he will show them where the ball is going.

There’s around half a second of time and space between Ryan doing what he should do here (securing the ball and then turning away) and Itoje/Launchbury stripping him at the peak of his jump.

Small errors produce big target window misses at the highest level and Ireland will need to ensure they run a smoother set-piece at the weekend. Georgia might not be as good as England at the lineout, but if we want to beat them as we ought to, a functioning set piece will be crucial.