Driving lineouts changing shape of rugby as officials fail to respond

The proliferation of driving maul tries has not been confined to the northern hemisphere with Brumbies hooker Folau Fainga’a one of Super Rugby’s leading tryscorers. Picture: Getty Images

Rugby’s laws do not lavish love upon a backline. In open play, the most subtle decoy angle is likely to be penalised as the referee and ­assistants illustrate their lack of empathy all too often. Given the high organisational capacity of defences in the English premiership, a little more leeway seems in order — but the law’s the law.

So why not play to them? One law alone is loaded in favour of the team in possession — the driving lineout. Forget the technicalities. Packs have some of sport’s most intimidating professionals to protect their ball-carrier at the rear of a maul. At best, it is a mass of ­tightly bound muscle moving straight towards the opposing tryline. As much a probable as possible source of tryscoring.

The odds are tilting in favour of packs prepared specifically for scoring from 5m out. Lawmakers have attempted to speed up the breakdown and in the process, the penalty count has soared. Those penalties are then dispatched to the corner.

Watch every game of Super Rugby AU Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

Then there is the scrum — the mystery of this rugby age. Who ­really knows what is going on? Not the majority of referees. They guess, give out penalties and the net result is a kick, no longer for goal but territory. There was a time when the option for the lineout made little sense. Tries were relatively rare. But during lockdown, it appears as though every English rugby thinker has adopted the Exeter Chiefs’ attitude and decided to roll the dice and kick for the corners.

The dice are loaded. The growing number of opportunities coming with the excess of penalties has distorted the shape of a game. The discrepancy between before and after the hiatus for COVID-19 is extraordinary; the gulf between the statistics too great to be a mere anomaly. The hooker, so often through the years the steering man at the back of the drive, is fast rivalling wings for tryscoring.

Before lockdown, we witnessed 13 rounds of the Gallagher Premiership. Hookers managed 17 tries. There were also six ­penalty tries. I include these ­because short-range drives are ­inevitably the ­attacks that are ­illegally pulled down, with a penalty try replacing the hooker’s name on the scoresheet.

Contrast that with the four rounds since Premiership rugby has resumed. During the first weekend back, Harlequins’ matchwinning score against Sale Sharks was a driving lineout from close range finished off by Scott Baldwin, the Wales player. That was one of 11 close-range lineouts rewarded with a try that weekend. The next day I saw four tries from hookers — all steering jobs — in Bath’s win against London Irish.

The pattern was set. In four rounds of Premiership rugby, the men in the middle of the front row have crossed on 24 occasions, with four penalty tries for good measure. Whereas the first 13 rounds had an average strike rate of 1.75 a week for hookers/penalty tries, the Premiership is now ­averaging seven tries per round; a four-fold increase.

I haven’t included the pick-and-drive variant. Patience is still a virtue close to the line but the ­instant smash and score is the new vogue. Commentators love to talk up the red zone, the area in which possession is most likely to result in tries. Most commonly it is thought to be the final 22m of the field. That is a nonsense now.

It is just a thin white line 22m from the posts. The red zone, the action (of sorts) is 5m out, where the ball is shielded from opponents, where defensive lineouts don’t realise their best chance to prevent a score is by competing at source — in the air — and where support players get away with going off their feet. Where officiating should be strong, it is weak.

The temptation to focus on “5m strategy” is not aesthetically pleasing. Worse still, it is not an even contest. Why do anything but kick long and maximise the crazy ­advantages offered to the forwards’ phalanx?

At the highest level this isn’t enough. Dominance isn’t guaranteed at the breakdown, enough time not assured in the red zone. Saracens only cracked Europe when they added layers to their game. Exeter look as if it is fast-tracking itself into a position to play it, other than its effective English pick-and-drive way.

Saracens and Exeter have been England’s exceptional teams. The bulk of them, take Bath for ­example, lack balance. They understand the advantages of the 5m lineout and have built a scrum to give them a sufficient foundation on which to base their game deep in enemy territory. But when they fail to bully, there is scant flexibility.

Yet these driving lineouts are proving an irresistible temptation to play territory rather than run it around and be penalised for adventure. The sport has to end this obstructive lineout loophole.

The lawmakers may also think about cutting the value of a red-zone try.

Say seven points for the usual converted try, three for a penalty and an intermediate five points in total for a score originating within a reassigned zone, 10m from the tryline.

Make the drive a lot less worthwhile and encourage a little more dash and daring in the process.

It’s not just my old club Bath lacking some balance in its ­thinking. Lawmakers, a little creative thought, please.

The Times