Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

No, they're obviously not running the same lineout with Leinster and Ireland, given there are different coaches for both, and I'm equally not entirely absolving the other guys (I clearly cited an example of a scenario where Clarkson was at fault), but as I said, I think there is enough there to show how the same set of players aren't having these issues for Leinster, so the issue primarily is either the guy running it (from a coaching perspective) or the guy calling it.

We're going around in circles here.

Fair enough, FTD. I'm not really inclined to do a lineout-by-lineout breakdown so happy to leave it at that…

Tbh, I think scrummaging is our biggest set-piece concern going in the 6 Nations after what happened vs SA and with our injury issues.

Overall, it's probably the most tentative I've been going into a 6 Nations in a good few years, based on our SA, NZ and France results and performances last year…

Without question

Penalties at scrums. Free kicks at Lineout.

Crooked throw and contest and you get a scrum. More penalties.

Not in Irelands favour

But on this….

Whether he always knows where he's supposed to be throwing with Ireland, or his jumpers and lifters know where he's going to throw it, that's less clear

…this could equally be an 'attention to detail' thing on the part of the thrower or the lifters. They obviously have less time in Ireland camp than they do with Leinster.

Beirne could be calling the perfect lineout, but if the players in question don't know that detail, it hardly seems like Beirne is at fault then.

And before anyone says otherwise, this could also be levelled at POC - if the throwers and lifters don't have enough time to know the detail, he needs to design a simpler lineout playbook.

But literally none of that can be placed at the feet of Beirne.

The point is - there's plenty enough blame to go around, so poor our lineout has been in recent times. But ultimately, for me, the buck stops with the coach.

I literally haven't said he's blameless….

I think his calling is part of the problem.

We get it, Beirne has to shoulder some blame for Munster's malfunctioning lineout. And yes, given his performances for us in Red this season he's lucky that Ryan Baird is injured because his place in the team might be in jeporady otherwise. I also think that Fineen Wycherley has been calling the lineout in recent Munster games and it's still been unreliable, so that disproves the point you're trying to make.

There is a chance that Farrell will have noticed Beirne's poor club form and start a Leinster 8 vs. France by playing Jack Conan at 6. But Beirne is a Farrell favourite and I'd wager a large sum that he'll be wearing the 6 jersey in Paris.

The lineout has many inputs to success, the caller, the jumpers, the lifters and the thrower. All of these must be got right if we're to stand any chance of a decent 6N. I do recall that POC himself used to heap huge praise on John Hayes' importance to the lineout during his playing career, apparently his lifting was top notch and gave POC a huge advantage competing for the ball.

If they moved the lineout calling away from Tadhg Beirne to Fineen Wycherley then that does the complete opposite of "disproves" the point I'm trying to make, it could equally be the case that Fineen Wycherley is bad at this, but it fairly comprehensively says they don't think Beirne is good at it.

I'm not overly critical or negative of Beirne either - as I've said elsewhere on this thread, he's been an incredible player for Ireland. I think he's one of a number of guys who is showing clear fatigue from the Lions, which is probably exacerbated by some other factors (he just turned 34, he has a new small baby at home). I absolutely wouldn't suggest he should be dropped from the Irish starting team either.

The lineout has many inputs to success, the caller, the jumpers, the lifters and the thrower.

People keep making this same point - and the bulk of those are technical skills - jumping, lifting, throwing. Calling is a mental skill.

We absolutely know all of these players are very capable of consistently executing these technical skills, because we see them do it time and time again.

There is a far bigger question mark around Beirne's capabilities on the mental skill of calling a lineout effectively, especially if, as you say, Munster have moved that responsibility away from him too recently.

A complete aside, but iirc Mick Galwey credited John Hayes for extending his rugby playing career because of this.

I think you’d have to say there’s obviously an issue with the system. That may be getting exacerbated by the caller. The majority of the players have shown they can be part of a successful lineout.

I agree with this, Beirne shouldn't be calling the lineout if it's contributing to the problems. I have a feeling thought that changing the caller may not make much difference.

You're correct, I had thought it was POC but it was in fact Gaillimh.

My point being that a successful lineout has many moving parts. I don't think the current woes should be pinned on any individual.

The Irish lineout struggles go back to when POM was still around calling the lineouts - blaming Beirne seems massively simplistic. The lineout has been up and down for a couple years at this point.

Remains to be seen how we get on this 6N