Lineout

Question
how do I coach my No.4 jumper to outmanoever his opponent in a full lineout?

Answer
Hi Matt,

This is a difficult thing to tech because your trying to to teach "cunning". Your player needs to keep one eye on the opposition jumper and one eye on the opposition hooker. He needs to be one step in front of the other jumper the goal is to be able to have his lifters get him up in front so he has the advantage. Using the lifters is key.

He needs to be live on his feet but so do his blockers/lifters. the blocker at the back of your no. 4 should be looking for the faint where the opposition faints forward then move rapidly back for a long lob ball. He needs to call the move to your no.4 and maybe even have one hand griping his hip. Your jumper needs to allow himself to be manipulated into the correct position by the rear lifter. This allows him to keep his focus forward on the ball while still being in the best position to jump.

So to train this have your no.4 and his lifters stand as they would in the line out for defense. The Front lifter should be facing back towards the no.4 jumper but marking his opposite lifter. He should only move to shadow the front lifter. This negates a faint forward.

The rear lifter faces forward with one or both of his hands on your jumpers hips. he should be watching the opposition rear lifter. Your no. watches the hooker and flicks quick looks at the other jumper.

They need to keep on their toes and communicating. The rear lifter has the dominant calls as he can see the whole picture your no.4 needs to trust him. This 3 man team is your pod. The same principle should apply to your 2 jumper and 6 jumpers. This is a "3 Pod Defense".

Train by having two opposing pods set up in line out formation. Start with no ball and simply have the two pods start to out maneuver each other with in a 5 second count down. On the count of "...3,2,1, JUMP!" the jumper in front "wins".

After they get good at this add in a hooker and a ball.

This defensive pattern needs to be practiced again and again. Start with my way then tweak it to suite your team and players.

Your number two jumper should pretty much jump every time unless within the defending 22. His goal is to obstruct the view of the rear opposition jumpers so he needs to push the envelope of coming across the channel.

Defending inside the 22 you need to make a judgement call on weather to jump or form a quick maul defense.

I hope this helps.