By Adrian Jackman
October 19 2005

At the weekend a couple of people said how much they enjoy some of the posts explaining the game, so here you go the lineout as understood by your truly.

Basically there are five places to throw, front, 2, 4, 6 and over the top. Lets look at them in turn.

 

Front, this has a very limited use and is more or less an opportunist throw if the defender standing at the front of the line and the hooker are not awake a quick throw to the man at the front can be received back by the hooker who gets a free run up the tramlines. The downside of this is it is hard to plan for and often the ball does not travel 5 metres, the plus side is it makes the prop at the front think and gives quick ball as a defence may be organising.

 

2 ball is usually to the jumper standing at 2 in the lineout and props lift him at 1 and 3. This used to be seen as the banker ball but is far less so these days. There are usually to types of throw here a fairly flat and fast throw or a more loping and higher throw. The fast flat throw is very hard for the opposition to steal but also harder to catch and possible for the opposition to get a hand in, if the ball is knocked back or even knocked on but missed by the ref it often gives the hooker a few free yards to run into so is seldom used near the try line. The loping ball is safer, however it does give the opposition the chance to get ahead of the man so the chance of a turnover is greater. Even with clean ball this is the least useful as you have very little room on the blindside and are open to be driven into touch. Any pass from the SH has further to travel and the attacking flanker has a head start getting to the FH, so unless you can get a maul secured and driving you will normally see a box kick from the SH or in a defensive mode possibly the 15 standing deep and squarer to the lineout so it is hard to get great distance on the kick.

 

4 ball has far more variations to it, with the jumper moving forward, straight up or backwards , the ball in tends to be more lobbed in each case. There are also more possibilities as to what you can do with the ball, setting a maul is easier as a slight feed either way completely changes the angle of attack and you have more players either side and are further from touch. Quick ball or off the top ball is also much easier to move on to the backs for this reason this is the position usually occupied by the best jumper.

 

6 ball has many advantages to it as it offers excellent ball for the backs to run as the back row can get no where near the FH, it also offers the chance of a peel, one of the other players running at the space just past the lineout or the scrum half picking at any holes as well as starting a rolling maul at very little defence with the option of getting the ball back and targeting any area that is poorly defended. The downside with this is because the ball has to be in the air a long time it give the opposition the chance to lift a man ahead of the intended receiver. It is also the hardest ball to throw straight especially in a strong wind and if the ball is overthrown it gives the other side the chance to have a back row run at free undefended space.

 

Over the top the main advantage and use for this is when defending your own line, within 5 metres as the defending side only have to be behind the line whilst the attacking side have to be 10 metres away, so by cutting the numbers (more later) a simple throw over the top should be an easy catch and drive usually for the 6 or 8 as long as the throw is straight. This can also be used slightly shorter for the teams throwing in 7, this however is high risk. On top of this teams will have a few special moves, these usually involve quickly moving the ball once it has been received and is usually aided by someone deliberately blocking the defence somewhere where they can attack.

 

 

Right that is the basic throws covered, so now for some thoughts about how to line up. The traditional way is 1,4,3,5,6,8,7 this however has limitations as 3 can only lift either 4 or 5 and 6 can only lift 5 or 8, but as long as the opposition line up the same way so can they. It is now far more common to go away from this with many defending sides using the hooker in place of 1 who stands where 3 previously was or even last but one so they cut out the either or problem, this can also be done by having single man lifting (at least initially) so again increasing the areas where they can challenge, however all this assumes a static line out which we all know doesn’t happen very often. One option which has seemingly been favoured by Saints in the last couple of games is to have a jumper in the scrum half position, which means depending on where he joins the line and whether as a jumper or a lifter gives another huge amounts of variations. Of course another option is to jumble the numbers, basically the defending team can only have the same number in the lineout as the team throwing in, so by putting less people in you have far more room for movement and in theory a greater chance of winning the ball, on the downside you have far more players in a defensive line.

 

So then we move onto calls, teams will have coded calls for the lineout usually a variation on numbers letters or names to determine where the ball is being thrown and in what way it will be thrown and in what way the ball will be delivered, maul, off the top or whatever, others will also move around to cause confusion amongst the defending side. The timing of the throw can be done two ways by the hooker or by some sign or by the jumper, for fast flat 2 ball or over the top it is usually the first and for all other throws it is usually the latter. If you watch you will often see the receiver nod just before he starts his movement and jump and usually the defending side will watch the players not the thrower for any “signs” that might help them steal the ball.

 

That I think pretty well sums up the attacking side so lets have a think about defence. There are basically three ways to defend.,

 

Firstly don’t jump but allow the team to catch the ball and drive very early, this puts you in the strongest defensive position as you have no men in the air or holding someone in the air, however it does mean you have about a zero chance of winning the ball, this is still the favoured option of most teams when defending close to their own line.

 

The second option is to try and react to where the ball is thrown, basically to jump after the ball is thrown or at least a jumper is being lifted this works very well if you have fairly light and athletic jumpers and is the tactic used by most of the teams with a high steal rate, this can however be partly combated by lifting late and giving the ball as little air time as possible, something Saints seem to have done in the last couple of weeks very well.

 

The third option is to target certain areas through pre determined calls or by how a team line up take a “guess” at where they will throw the ball and hope you get “lucky”. Of course most teams will also try and mess about with both lifters and jumpers, which is of course illegal, but only if you get caught!!!!!!

 

None of the above is set in stone and people are always coming up with new ideas and varieties on old ones and with the amount of video now about teams will be very aware of how a team work and any patterns they constantly use. None of this even takes into account the ability of the jumpers, lifters and thrower, let alone confidence and other variables.

 

So there you have it the lineout as understood by yours truly a very complex part of the game with an almost endless amount of plays and counter plays, over to you lot to put me right.