Creaky lineouts highlight scale of the challenge facing O’Connell

AS Paul O’Connell sat in the Thomond Park stand alongside Andy Farrell on Saturday night, it would have come as no surprise if his new boss gave him more than one glancing look as if to say: ‘This is exactly why I hired you’. For all of the lineout issues that unfolded, mostly on Munster’s part, they were indicative of a problem that has hampered Irish rugby over the last year.

Two lineouts in particular, one from each team either side of the break, summed up the scale of the job that O’Connell has on his hands.

The first was on 32 minutes when Leinster had just wrestled back momentum to the point that they were cranking up the pressure inside the Munster 22.

Having won a kickable penalty, Leinster turned down the chance to cut Munster’s 10-3 lead, as instead they rolled the dice with the kind of decision that Johnny Sexton has made several times since taking over as Ireland captain.

Sexton kicked for the corner, but the skipper’s call backfired as Leinster’s lineout misfired.

It was a rare blip on what was otherwise a decent night at the set-piece for a Leinster team who have struggled out of touch in recent months.

Seán Cronin has never been renowned for his darts, yet something went horribly wrong as Leinster’s system failed with Rhys Ruddock and Scott Fardy both lifted, but the ball sprayed out the back.

Sexton managed to recover the ball and although he did well to rescue the situation, a real scoring opportunity was lost for his side until Munster conceded another penalty.

This time Sexton called over James Ryan and Cronin, Leinster’s lineout leaders, and after a brief chat, the brains trust opted for a scrum rather than trusting their lineout again.

A minute later, Tadhg Beirne came up with an excellent turnover on his own line for what felt like a potential match-winning intervention.

That Leinster came away from that spell of pressure without scoring will have infuriated Leo Cullen, and had O’Connell sitting less comfortably.

O’Connell has a big task on his hands to restore Ireland’s lineout to the kind of standards that he demanded when he was calling the shots as a player. Although his remit as forwards coach will stretch far beyond the lineout, O’Connell’s primary task is to implement a system that will see the set-piece recover from last year’s struggles.

Ironically enough, Munster’s lineout has been one of their major strengths this season, yet for some reason they dropped their form hooker Kevin O’Byrne from the match-day squad.

Struggles

Rhys Marshall had a tough night, and the lost lineout on 48 minutes, which came shortly after JJ Hanrahan missed a poor shot at goal, summed up Munster’s struggles, as they compounded their errors.

For all that Munster are getting closer to Leinster, after failing to score in 74 minutes of last season’s semi-final defeat, Johann van Graan’s men then failed to score in 68 minutes of Saturday’s loss.

You can feel like you are making all the progress in the world, but you are never going to beat a team like Leinster with stats like that. A large proportion of Munster’s tries this season have come from the lineout, but as their set-piece creaked, they shot themselves in the foot.

To make matters worse, Leinster scored the game’s decisive try from a set-piece move off a (crooked) lineout, which we have analysed in detail in the accompanying images.

The presence of the outstanding James Ryan loomed large every time Marshall and later Niall Scannell, threw the ball into the lineout.

The Leinster lock stole two of Munster’s throws, which will have pleased O’Connell, who has a lot of work to do over the next fortnight before Ireland begin their Six Nations campaign against Wales.

Scannell and Rónan Kelleher are more likely to have been on O’Connell’s radar rather than Marshall and Cronin, but that they both started on the bench didn’t do their Ireland chances much good at all.

O’Connell would never have accepted the job unless he felt he could make a difference

To Scannell and Kelleher’s credit, they were solid when introduced, but with Rob Herring sitting with his feet up at home, this was an ideal chance to put even more pressure on the Ulster hooker, whose physicality at Test level remains a concern.

Like Leinster, Connacht have also had their lineout struggles this season, but Farrell is a fan of Dave Heffernan’s power in the loose.

When O’Connell was at his peak as a player, the Irish lineout, and in turn the maul, was a serious weapon.

That hasn’t been the case in recent times, and Farrell has been mindful of rectifying that, which is why he is tapping into O’Connell’s intellect.

O’Connell would never have accepted the job as Ireland’s forwards coach unless he felt he could make a difference. He won’t be under any illusions that there are glaring issues which need to be quickly resolved, but, equally, O’Connell won’t be daunted by the prospect of getting his hands dirty in doing so.