Lions’ secret weapon in line-outs? Noise pollution
The British and Irish Lions intend to bombard the All Blacks line-out with extreme “noise pollution” in the first Test on Saturday, as part of their attempt to overwhelm the world champions with a pressure game.
George Kruis, the England lock, said the tourists would “try anything” to gain an edge – including several of their forwards screaming at their opposite numbers during an All Blacks line-out.
One of the striking features of the Lions game plan during their tour of New Zealand is several of their forwards, most notably England lock Maro Itoje, shouting just as their opponents are attempting to throw the ball into a line-out.
Kruis admitted the Lions were prepared to do whatever it takes to disrupt the All Blacks line-out.
“You’ve got to put pressure on players somehow, and that’s one way of putting pressure on them,” said the Saracens player when asked about the Lions’ vocal assault on their Super Rugby opponents.
“The ideal thing is to get in the air and contest, but we want to be a complete pack so we’ll try everything.
“If we think there’s anything in it, then we’ll pursue it.”
When the Lions last toured New Zealand, their assistant coach, Andy Robinson, was so concerned that New Zealand had cracked their lineout codes that they were changed in the week before the first Test, with disastrous consequences.
The Lions lost 10 of their line-outs as the All Blacks closed out a comprehensive victory in Christchurch, and Sir Clive Woodward’s side went on to lose the series 3-0. Kruis, who will call the Lions’ line-out in the first Test at Eden Park, insisted that, 12 years on, the tourists have such a multitude of options at the line-out that the codes cannot now be cracked. “I hope we don’t have to change our calls,” Kruis said. “We’ve built a good platform as a base for the calls. You tweak your patterns for each game, but essentially most line-outs have a base.
“Once you’ve analysed the opposition, you tweak it, but we’ve shown we’re there or thereabouts. We’ve played three, four, five games together now, and we’re starting to learn scenarios.”
The evolution of the line-out calls, underpinned by Lions coach Steve Borthwick, is such that even if the All Blacks seem to have cracked their codes, the tourists can adapt to mix it up.
“There are so many different ways to call a line-out,” Kruis said. “You’ve got verbals, non-verbals and the idea is to create a system that is tough to recognise and durable under any circumstance.”