Do the maths. If you want to know what’s on Tom Youngs’s mind when he steps up to throw to his first lineout at Twickenhamon Saturday, you have to know the options. At a full seven-man lineout he probably has five; at a five-man that’s probably another three or four and at a three-man it’s down to a couple, although there’s scope for some funny stuff. Conservatively, that’s 10. Now multiply the total by the different styles of throw – at least three, before the funny stuff – and things are starting to mount.
No surprise then that Stuart Lancaster, after the horrors of the English lineout in Paris, called for Geoff Parling, the most experienced lineout operator the England coach has to hand and a guy with plenty of experience of working with Youngs at Leicester. It’s the communication between the thrower and the caller England need to improve.
It’s far too simplistic to blame the hooker when things go wrong at the lineout. He may be the most obvious candidate when things start to wobble. Then, when the nerves set in, life goes from bad to worse. It’s as though a big finger is pointing at the man in the No2 shirt to the spectators in the stadium and the millions beyond when, as often as not, it can be one of the many component parts which is going wrong.
At its simplest, the lineout – the full seven-man affair – offers up three targets, two of which are defendable. The defending side has to choose which target it wants to offer up and, more often than not, they elect to challenge the hooker to hit the man at the back of the lineout.
It’s a high-tariff throw. The ball to the front is the easiest, but it’s also the most predictable to defend. The ball off the middle jumper produces better attacking options, but it’s the ball to the back that ties in the defending back-row, opening up the field for the backs. Against that, all manner of things can go wrong; an extra whiff of breeze or a slightly squint throw and you are scrumming down with the opposition getting the put-in.
Think of it as a diving competition. The straightforward swallow – the throw to the front – is elegant but low on points. The triple somersault with twist and all the bells and whistles – the throw to the back – gets the points, but has the nerves jangling.
Dylan Hartley wouldn’t blink. Offered the back, he’d take it, but then again he is one of the best. Youngs is newer to the job; a converted centre, who probably has only half the weaponry (and confidence) of England’s more senior hooker, who is currently unavailable to Lancaster.
Again, making things super simple (you have to remember that sides such as France can have five jumpers) the hooker has two options. He can either hit his jumper or put the ball into a space where the jumper will be; the more difficult option.
My guess is that with Courtney Lawes calling the line (and he’s also pretty new to the job) Youngs has been more concerned with hitting his designated jumper. That man – it could be Lawes – is live and when he jumps that is where Youngs has to put the ball.
It’s simple and fast, demanding accuracy, but when things start to go wrong, the caller has to be able to turn things around and this is where Parling comes in and why Lancaster has gone for his particular skills, rather than the more all-round package that is Joe Launchbury.
Hopefully, through experience and the communications established on the Leicester training ground, Parling and Youngs can combine to produce the second option and the one more difficult to defend against, namely to put the ball into the space when the jumper will suddenly appear to make the clean catch.
If you want to know when the change is made these are the tell-tale clues. When the England lineout is quick and clinical with Parling, Lawes or Tom Woods – the lineout option missing in Paris – rising at the front, middle or back, Youngs will have been instructed to hit his man. If the lineout suddenly starts to resemble a game of musical chairs with plenty of toing and froing, constant changes of position, then Parling will have gone to option B; if Youngs can hit the spot, then it will be up to Parling to get his jumper there.
Get it right against Paul O’Connell, Devin Toner and Peter O’Mahony and England will have ironed out one big problem – the scrum is something else. Get it wrong and watch for the collective palpitations every time the ball goes out of play.