Being back Sam Wykes.
Obviously I'm kidding.
At the start of the season I thought the line out was doing ok. Coleman seemed to have it all under control. Agree last couple of games it's been a bit of a disaster.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
The Crusader's Line Out is effectively the All Blacks' Line Out.
They lead Super Rugby with a Line Out success of 94%.
The Highlanders are 8th with 88%.
The Chiefs are 3rd with 92%.
The Hurricanes are 5th with 90%.
The Reds are the most successful Aussie Line Out 90% (6th) (lead by the much maligned Rob Simmons).
The Brumbies (Steven Moore + Sam Carter + Scott Fardy) are next (11th) with 86%.
The Waratahs, Rebels and Force (14th - 16th) are all around 83% and close to the bottom of the table.
If you think that this means that the Wallabies have a potential Line Out problem then you are probably correct.
But it's marvelous what is achieved when we combine our best together.
Remember the Force has played 6 teams in the top half of the table. The Force's % will increase as we play against lesser teams and others (Reds, Rebs, Tahs) will decrease as they play against the higher teams.
Heath Tessman has generally been throwing well but he and the targets had a bad day against the top team winning only 4 from 9 (44%) on our own throw - it was close to being a total shambles.
Last edited by andrewg; 11-04-16 at 22:39.
...but until last weekend the leading lineout taker was ourfella. (Coleman)
I daresay that will have changed.
After Round 7 Adam Coleman is still on top with 35.Originally Posted by Ecky
...but until last weekend the leading lineout taker was our
I daresay that will have changed.Francois Uys 33. Rob Simmons 31.
According to Rugby365 Uys was equal on 35 before last week and Etzebeth was on 31; Simmons on 30
Stats on FoxSports (and hence Rugby 360) are always interesting as they are generally not supported by stats from any other source.
I ignore them as they are so different. FoxSports seem to have their own way of collecting things like Run m (always 30-40% more than elsewhere) and their Line Out data is completely different.
I usually use stats from ESPN Scrum, the Vodacom Phone App and the Super Rugby SANZAAR site as they are generally in agreement.
The stats I provided above are from the Super Rugby website (and the same on Vodacom Rugby App) both of which show Etzebeth on only 22 Line Out catches (and doesn't even rate on the table for Top Players).
If you had a real look at the lineout, it was not so much the throw (it was on a couple of occasions) but the lifting and timing of the lift. Any time Coleman was not jumping and was supposed to lift it went tits up...
Shows the importance of Pek at the lift.
Is having a player ranked #1 on lineout wins a good thing though? Or does this prove we are too predictable and we use Coleman too much. Maybe we should look at playing Mafi at 6 again and then we have 3 lineout options, or 4 including McCalman.
We knew that we were starting the year without enough Locks (the story for all Aussie teams). And this despite lots of efforts looking elsewhere (or so I hear).
I agree....we certainly look a better Line Out with Ross Haylett-Petty, Adam Coleman, Gus Cottrell and Ben McCalman all as catching options.
We lose too much around the park with Steve Mafi at No 6 .
Yes he has the occasional run but his ruck involvement and tackling is well below that of all other options.
I sometimes wonder, especially when we are in attack and possession is everything, why we don't just call to the front of the line out and secure the ball. We can either recycle possession or form a maul. Calling the back jumper repeatedly, against good defensive jumpers like Whitelock and Romano, is asking for trouble. Perhaps that is Coleman's inexperience - Sharpie needs to mentor him. He's turning into a complete lock otherwise.
Could a concentration on really good pick'n'drive drills for the team alleviate the non-selection of Mafi?
Last edited by chibi; 13-04-16 at 00:20.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
I think you'll find that mafi's pick'n'drive for the force has been restricted to one or two highly noticeable long runs through the middle of the ruck at a low average, rather than a high average of advantage line-beating runs, which is what we need.
Granted, the rest of the team don't have a high average of beating the advantage line in the pick 'n' drive, but my impression is that mafi is no better, in fact he's probably a bit worse.
We want to get all our forwards into a space where they can drive the ball from the base of the ruck and force the defense to reset, otherwise, they're just using three or four forwards to pile on the ball.
Some of it will be strength and technique, but most of it will be vision, we seem to be pretty good at finding the strongest part of the defensive line to run at and that makes me think that the boys aren't lookin or thinking, they are probably just running plays they run in training.
C'mon the
Going short on a line-out and trying to maul leaves you vulnerable to being pushed into touch. But going short and getting the ball to the half-back (or even back to the hooker, for a surprise move) is a good tactic if the line-out isn't working.
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote