A focus on Ireland's lineout

Bernard Jackman, Ciaran Kennedy and Murray Kinsella reflected on Ireland's battle with Australia on Rugby Weekly Extra, with Ireland's struggles at the lineout coming under focus.
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[@SMacCuUladh]

Bernard was brilliant in Alien Prometheus.

[@SMacCuUladh]

and Hellraiser.

[@malibongwemalinga8871]

😂😂😂

[@blackrockjim]

I must be watching a different team. Irelands line-out has been poor for at least three years and it’s a scandal that it hasn’t been fixed.

[@dylanpalmer5067]

Agree with you 100%, I don’t know how everyone’s only noticing now

[@robertpirsig5011]

That's patently untrue. Probably over the last 12 months or so yes, but I remember specifically that P'OC had a huge impact initially. TBF I think Ireland have been a bit off everywhere and it seems that as lineout is so important it gets a hyper focus.

[@dylanpalmer5067]

@@robertpirsig5011 glass half full kind of man

[@f.o.5800]

anyone other than O'Conell would be under serious pressure for his job at this stage. his body of work with ireland has been v dodgy at best and no real coaching pedigree before getting the position.

[@patrickleonard7988]

Ex-players are never going to criticise O'Connell, but the lineout has cost games, most notably the most recent game against the Abs.

[@TheM41a]

@@patrickleonard7988 cost us a try in WC as well against them

[@f.o.5800]

@@patrickleonard7988 yeah its been the biggest elephant in the room for a while now

[@GeorgeJordan-s2y]

Every team that Ireland has played recently are better at their lineout than Ireland, if you want it fixed get good lineout coach .

[@tvpc3194]

irish media are outstanding for covering up the reality from casual fans or the dont know much about rugby

[@DM-rp9ik]

In what way?

[@Horsegirl5678]

England made the same mistake with Martin Johnson. The assumption that if you're a great player you'll be a great coach.... POC was parachuted into this coaching ticket with relatively little coaching experience at a high level ... His tenure wouldn't be viable in any other top team ...

[@mikek3883]

No one who works in or around Irish rugby seems to have the balls to say that POC should go. I presume he's too well liked, too influential. Journalists are scared. It's ridiculous though. Had we a 90%+ lineout, we'd likely beat New Zealand and presumably make the WC final. He's had long enough

[@cbarry88]

3 years and not addressed - paul o'connell needs to do better or move aside respectfully

[@dublin7]

If the Irish rugby team was run as a business. At the end of year, you would do an overall analysis of the business. Where you are succeeding, where you are falling behind or failing at, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are and what you can change to improve. Simple business. Strengths: Excellent Head coach in Andy Farrell. Consistently seems to get his team over the line, even when they aren't playing their best. Strength: Excellent Defense: Simon Easterby has Ireland playing excellent defense since he took on the role of defense coach. Rightfully so he is being made head coach while Farrell is away with the Lions. Weaknesses: Lineout. Paul O'Connell has not progressed as we hoped as a lineout coach. We have become predictable and it has been an area of weakness. Scrum: John Fogarty hasn't done a bad job as scrum coach but there is significant room for improvement, especially considering the calibre of the pack Ireland have. We have never been bigger, stronger or faster as we are now. Attack: Andrew Goodman for me has been the main catalyst to Irelands poor performances. During his last season with Leinster, their attack looked stale, slow, predictable and mechanical. That is exactly what the Irish attack is now. Yes we get tries because we have world class players but this team should be slicing teams apart like we did under Mike Catt. How to improve: Lineout: Replace Paul O'Connell with Victor Matfield. Bring South African lineout DNA to the Irish lineout Scrum: Replace John Fogarty and bring back Greg Feek. Ireland's scrum was world class under Feek. Attack. Replace Andrew Goodman with Felix Jones. Jones had South Africa playing line a team possessed while he was Attack coach.

[@karlclifford1176]

I wouldn’t just blame him but I thinks it’s important to note the line out has suffered since McCarthy has come in. Hes much heavier and bulkier than what second rows we usually produce, and I think he’s a little slow getting up in the air. A split second is all the difference is. However hes just a cog in an extremely rusty machine. The line out looks complicated. I don’t think Beirne is a great caller either as our line out in Munster is struggling too. Abut we’re also lacking a Paul O’Connell or a devin Toner, a real student of the line out. Teams stopped kicking the ball dead so we’d have no line out, now they want us to have them.

[@MrPedrojohnston]

Bernard about to join blue man group?

[@neillscan]

Trouble is we expect our lads to win and then score a try from every line out. We will clean it up never fear 😳

[@jack-xz7px]

Birch won’t call out the weaknesses of Fogs(there for the crack) and POC ….for fear of being outside the Irish punditry tent ….was much easier to call out Catt back in the day than an ex Irish coach

[@kinchybladey]

Violet Beauregarde's really let herself go...

[@jimoil6372]

🤣 you legend!! This is the moment Birch becomes Berry.

[@johnhealy6494]

😂

[@jmo8934]

It’s been poor for nearly two years now anyway. The scrum has been poor also. Set piece has been killing us. You can change the players or the coach. It’s probably time for a change of coach in that area by the looks of it. POM was a saving grace in the lineout but his days are drawing to a close.

[@tvpc3194]

picking big joe and kelliher for scrum and maul doesnt help. same with putting beirne at 6 instead of pom for power over lineout. ireland scores comes from taking risks at lineout throwing to back etc. poc hands are tied cause ireland dont have the forwards so have to make it up in other ways. leinster forwards arent as good as leinster media say but will work outside top 5.

[@KewKew-do3kq]

You won't hear the cheerleaders say anything like. They don't have a clue. Jackman trying not to laugh at the guy on the right talking kak 😂

[@PAUL21995]

Bernard Are you in a disco bar

[@cathalsheehan9596]

Yes Bernard, lets just make excuses for the coaches to cover up for their horrendous job they've done in regards to the line out...the typical Irish attitude to everything, and we wonder why these issue become unstuck in the RWC. We need a line out specialist but only because we need someone to cover up for the horrendous job the coaches have been doing.

[@eoinleen1]

Drop Joe McCarthy. Beirne and Henderson in the row, Izzy or Baird at 6.

[@JohnHirsch88]

Birch's obvious leinster bias showing

[@ciaranbrk]

If he was bias he would have said sack O'Connell for the poor line out.

[@JohnHirsch88]

@@ciaranbrk He's literally blue

[@PEBMUN]

@@JohnHirsch88 😂

[@johnmc3862]

😂😂

[@burncarlow]

Once a blue, always a blue..

[@lamelamelame3]

Kellehar can't hit the broadside of a barn with his darts. You'd have better luck having Stevie Wonder throwing the ball in. POM is the only reliable lineout option -- Ryan is soft as wet tissue paper. It's more the player selection than the coaching. Shite D4 players rear their head again to cause issues with the national side. A tale as old as time at this stage

[@PB22559]

Kelleher is a strong ball carrier and a great impact tackler. He was instrumental in that win in SA in the 2nd test. Physically he's up there with the Bok front row. You're right though, his darts aren't at the required level. The Irish line out is a mess. Most of the time there's no gap and none of them have the brains to tell the ref to widen the gap before the ball is thrown. I've noticed this trend in every game over the last year or so. POC should have sorted that simple issue out by now. He was a great LO operator in his day but is he a good LO coach? It doesn't seem so

[@paulnash5500]

Plonker

[@lamelamelame3]

@paulnash5500 indeed many of the D4 players are that. But even worse are the massive D4 thickos who think they know anything about rugby, but just spew utterly ignorant shite at all times.