ALEX DUNBAR’S LINEOUT try for Scotland on Saturday rather perfectly summed up much of the Irish performance in Murrayfield.
Distracted, unresponsive, muddy in thought.
We’ve already examined how Ireland’s poor mental state affected their defensive display, but we also saw strong signs in a lineout and maul performance that was very damaging.
The try by Dunbar – a centre – at the lineout was the lowlight in these shortcomings.
As with our analysis of Ireland’s defensive failings, we must point out that Scotland are superb here. It’s a highly-intelligent trick play that has clearly involved a large amount of analysis work and took genuine balls to call.
If this one goes wrong five metres out from the opposition tryline, there’s great scope for ridicule. Instead, Scotland lineout caller Jonny Gray makes a simple and informed decision to allow the Scots take a commanding 21-5 lead with 30 minutes played.
Key to the move is, of course, the presence of backs at the front of the lineout.
We can see above that scrum-half Greig Laidlaw [9], right wing Tommy Seymour [11] and inside centre Dunbar [12] are part of the lineout.
But the camera angles from Saturday’s game don’t give us the greatest idea of what’s going on further back in the lineout, so it’s worth plotting that out ourselves.
Below, we can see a representation of how both teams are set up before replacement hooker Ross Ford’s throw.
Scotland have nine players in the lineout to Ireland’s eight, so it’s not exactly as if there is a huge overload that Joe Schmidt’s men simply can’t cover.
But Ireland fail to cover the spaces as best they might have.
They are well positioned to defend a throw to the tail, with Sean O’Brien [7], Devin Toner [5], and CJ Stander [6] in a position to either get up and compete or engage in a maul if Scotland’s Josh Strauss [8] is lifted by Zander Fagerson [3] and Jonny Gray [5].
Closer to the touchline, we can see that Ireland have a pod ready to cover a throw to the middle of the lineout, with Jack McGrath [1] and Jamie Heaslip [8] in position to lift Iain Henderson [4] if Scotland hit Ryan Wilson [6].
That much is indicated below.
Of course, there are several other lifting and jumping combinations possible for Scotland if they perform pre-throw movement on the ground and re-shuffle their ordering, but in the most basic terms these two ‘pods’ match up well for Ireland.
Jack McGrath [1] obviously isn’t a realistic defensive jumper up against Richie Gray [4], but even if there isn’t going to be an Irish jump to compete they are well set to contest the Scottish maul in this area.
The problem is closer to the touchline, where Tadhg Furlong has turned his back on those three backs.
Furlong – like the rest of the Ireland pack – clearly expects the Scots to throw to the middle or tail and then fire up a nine-man maul.
Generally, that’s what we get when backs join the lineout and we’ve seen examples of that kind of tactic from the likes of Connacht, the All Blacks, Wales and Ireland themselves in recent years.
But there is still a requirement to mark the spaces and Ireland leave a glaring hole at the very front of the lineout.
Making Furlong’s positioning all the more frustrating for Ireland is the fact that Wilson [circled below] is the first realistic Scottish jumper in the original lineout set-up.
Wilson is, therefore, the first man in the set-up who could possibly be lifted – before any possible movement pre-throw – so Furlong would not even be needed to lift a competing Irish jumper against Wilson.
Of course, Wilson could swap places with with Allan Dell in front of him and jump from there, but that would require inside centre Dunbar lifting him from the front. Another unlikely scenario.
The shortcomings from Ireland are obviously collective and they need to be far better organised on defensive lineouts, but a simple repositioning from Furlong would have prevented the try in this case.
We can see above that McGrath [in white] is facing the Scotland lineout and giving himself options to turn towards the touchline and lift there, or turn back infield and lift towards the back of the lineout.
Furlong [in red] – presuming that the backs at the front of the lineout are not realistic targets – simply has his back turned and gives himself no flexibility.
Captain Rory Best at the front, meanwhile, is relatively slow to react when Ford’s throw hits Dunbar and the damage is done in the blink of an eye.
Ford’s throw might be ever so slightly towards the Scottish side of the lineout, but it’s certainly not as bad as some we see in the game today, while Ireland’s feed to the scrum was consistently crooked and unpunished.
It’s an excellent score by Scotland, cleverly designed, but Ireland will be embarrassed by the ease of it.
Early failings
Ireland won 12 of their 14 throws into the lineout on Saturday, but the losses were extremely costly and some of those ‘wins’ provided scrappy possession for Ireland.
We’ve already taken a look at how Scotland scored their first try through Stuart Hogg, but it’s worth underlining that Vern Cotter’s men were given the chance to grab the territory for that try because of a lineout error from Ireland.
The incident below comes in the sixth minute of play, with the score still at 0-0 and Ireland in a fine position to build pressure on the Scots.
The movement from Ireland pre-throw is good, the lifting from McGrath and Heaslip is strong, and it all leaves Henderson in a position to take clean ball in the middle of the lineout.
But the Ulsterman drops the ball at the apex of his jump, a simple handling error. Henderson is likely distracted by the jump of Jonny Gray at the front of the Scotland lineout and perhaps the flight of Best’s throw is not perfect, but Henderson will still feel he should have held this ball.
Instead, Scotland pounce on the loose possession, counter attack, and eventually score the opening try just over two and a half minutes later.
Timing off
Jump to the 13th minute, with Ireland now 7-0 down, and they have a superb opportunity to bring themselves rapidly back into the game. A penalty against Scotland’s Wilson for going off his feet at ruck time allows Ireland to kick up into the left corner.
Their first maul is illegally collapsed by Scotland – this is an issue that referees need to focus more attention on. Last year, Ireland had five almost certain maul tries collapsed by the opposition.
Nonetheless, they go to the corner again with the second penalty in this instance and construct another maul after Toner catches Best’s throw in the middle of the lineout.
Saturday’s theme of Ireland being unresponsive or slow to react raises its head again here, however, as they are called up for accidental offside ahead of the ball carrier.
The maul is strongly set up by Ireland but they simply must react more swiftly when they break off to the left. Heaslip suggests to referee Romain Poite that it’s “still the same lineout” – i.e. Scotland have disengaged from the maul and Ireland can therefore continue forward as they do – but Poite has clear grounds for his decision.
As Heaslip, McGrath and Best shear off to the left, there needs to be a call from someone – Best, McGrath, Heaslip or even Conor Murray – to ensure ball carrier Best disengages from McGrath and Heaslip in front of him.
Comments are closed