Ahead of the potential Six Nations decider between Ireland and France at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Sam Larner pinpoints a destructive weapon both teams will be keen to utilise.
Evolution of the lineout
This weekend in the Six Nations, you’ll see the majority of teams using a plus-one lineout. This is a weapon, but it’s not a secret one, it’s a tactic which is now rife among professional teams and even some lower-level sides.
It started life as a way to create power in the maul but it’s now spread, driven by intelligent lineout coaches, to create confusion and uncertainty. But what is it and why is it now so prevalent?
A ‘typical’ lineout has a line of players and then a scrum-half stood in the receiver position. Once the lineout is won the jumper will either pass the ball down off the top of the lineout or bring it to the ground and then pass to the scrum-half.
In the above example, you can see that everyone in between the blue lines for Exeter Chiefs are in the lineout. The chap in the pink circle is the receiver, in this case, a scrum-half.
This is the traditional lineout and still a very common way for teams to set-up at the lineout, but it is no longer the most common. According to Oval Insights data, 56% of lineouts this season have been plus ones.
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In the plus one, that player in the receiver position (pink circle) is replaced by a forward. Initially, the goal was that a team could create a maul quicker and with more power if a forward was there to add their heft instead of a scrum-half.
Just a few years ago, when the plus one lineout was first getting started, it signified that a maul was coming. Teams would give up the element of surprise in exchange for a better maul platform. And it worked. The opposition didn’t compete as much because they were worried about losing ground on the initial shove and even when they did stay down, they struggled to match the attacking team’s ability to get the drive started.
That was the first evolution of the plus one. But then it evolved. The law said that you couldn’t have two players in the receiver position. You couldn’t have the best of both worlds by putting a scrum-half and a forward there and leave the defence guessing if you were going to maul or pass. But, you could put the scrum-half in the lineout, usually at the front with the rest of the forwards in behind.
Not universally liked initially
Once the throw was made, legally, you can do what you want and you could pivot the nine into the receiver position and push the forward to the back of the lineout then either pass to them or pass into the backline as the defence wondered where the maul had gone.
This wasn’t universally liked by lineout coaches, or hookers, because it pushed the lineout back a few paces and made the usually banker front ball slightly tougher. A ball to the back was very hard to win without going over the 15m line and therefore letting the forwards come around and potentially steal the ball.
But rugby had seen something in this set-up and wanted to make it better. It’s worth saying that plus one lineouts with scrum-halves involved in the lineout haven’t gone away.
Welsh fans might be familiar with them after France scored their fourth and fifth tries in the opening match via them with Antoine Dupont at the front but the pack mauling. What is increasingly common is for the scrum-half to be dispatched to the backline to operate as a fly-half with the plus-one forward tasked with sometimes adding heft to the maul and sometimes operating with delicate hands to pass the ball wide and start an attack. Josh van der Flier is brilliant in this role as is Ben Earl.
These are modern forwards who have all the skills of forwards and most of the skills of backs. They can make these lineouts more effective by setting up a brief fake maul to tie in the opposition forwards and then using the cover of the maul to bounce free and run away from the touchline. Do this effectively and you can trap all the opposition forwards defending just seven of your own forwards as you create a mismatch. Even if you don’t pass the ball wide, you can create nightmares for opposition fly-halves by running straight at them.
If you are a regular rugby watcher, the plus one won’t be new to you, but the reason it is so effective might be. This will be a key area when Ireland and France face off on Saturday, whoever can trick their opponent most effectively will gain a head start in this most important of platforms.
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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ireland-v-france-the-destructive-weapon-both-teams-use-to-trick-their-opponents
