Articles

How to use the ‘15 metre plus’ lineout throw to create attacking success Posted about 2 years ago

Photo: Sky Sport

The game of rugby is full of rules – some of them very detailed, and others arcane. It pays to know the rules deeply, so that you can find ways to exploit them.

In their match against Argentina in the fifth round of the 2022 Rugby Championship, the Springboks discovered some interesting nuances of lineout law, which they rapidly widened into fully-fledge defensive ‘loopholes’.

The lineout is formed between the 5 and 15-metre lines, and the vast majority of throws enter this space. While the ball is in this zone, the referee holds his arms aloft. This is a sign indicating that the lineout is not over, and therefore players outside it are still obliged to observe a gap of 10 metres between themselves and the set-piece.

This rule no longer applies when the ball moves beyond the 15-metre line.

Law 37.a.III
The lineout ends when the ball, or player in possession of the ball goes beyond the 15-metre line.

At the Estadio Libertadores de América in Buenos Aires, the Springboks exploited this wrinkle to their great advantage. On no less than eight occasions in the match, they threw to the tail in situations where momentum took the receiver beyond the 15m line.

The first example occurred at the end of the first quarter:

View the clip

The throw from Malcolm Marx reaches number 7 Franco Mostert beyond the 15m line and the referee’s arms immediately drop down by his sides – the 10-metres offside rule is no longer in operation.

That is not the only immediate impact. The decision-making process is accelerated on defence: the Argentine forwards have to decide post-haste how to balance defending the maul with defending the space around the fringes. The tail-gunner at the end of the line is quickly absorbed, and by the end of the clip only two Pumas forwards are guarding the edges of the maul:

The length of the delivery and the angle of the drive means that a very wide short-side has been created in double-quick time:

View the clip

The Boks have not had to pull off any spectacular manoeuvres in order to create space for right wing Canan Moodie down the right side-line, and South Africa ended the sequence in rich profit, with a penalty try and a yellow card on the end Argentine defender for an illegal tackle on the scoring play.

With the game reaching boiling point in the second half, the Springboks spread the same principle over five phases of attack:

View the clip

This time the drive is stopped at source, so the Boks need three extra phases punching into midfield before they can move the ball back to that inviting short-side:

View the clip

It is the same picture as before, with the onside wing (Makazole Mapimpi) in clear space down the side-line off the pass from Marx.

The defence’s ability to close the 10-metre gap is not always a good thing:

View the clip

The ball travels beyond the 15m line, the Argentine number 12 rushes up, and South African second row Lood De Jager goes straight through the middle to score. Although this try was eventually called back for a knock forward in the air by Mostert, it illustrates how the decision-making process for the defence is balanced on a knife edge.

Once the Springboks had established that they could attack the short-side off the ‘15m-plus’ throw, they were able to exploit the poor decisions of the Argentine forwards on which side of the ruck to defend.

‘To wrap [to the open-side] or not to wrap, that was the question’:

View the clip

After yet another throw beyond the 15m line, the line comes up, and forwards have to decide immediately which side of the ruck to defend. By fifth phase, they had clearly got the balance wrong, with Mapimpi standing in midfield behind the site of the ruck. South Africa rolled around the corner to score to the right of the posts two phases later.

Summary

The raw stats are impressive. In all, South Africa threw beyond the 15m line on eight occasions in the game, scoring four tries (one disallowed on review) and garnering three more penalties from the resulting situations.

They forced the Argentine forwards to make far quicker decisions on defence: whether to commit to the drive or stay out; whether to wrap to the open-side of the first ruck, or stay put and defend the yawning short-side which had been instantly created. More often than not, the Pumas got it wrong and South Africa made hay while the sun was shining, all afternoon long.

Enter your email address to continue reading

We frequently post interesting articles and comment from our world class content providers so please provide us with your email address and we will notify you when new articles are available.

We'll also get in touch with various news and updates that we think will interest you. We promise to not spam, sell, or otherwise abuse your address (you can unsubscribe at any time).

See all Set Piece videos

Comments

comments powered by Disqus

Nick has worked as a rugby analyst and advisor to Graham Henry (1999-2002), Mike Ruddock (2004-2006) and latterly Stuart Lancaster (2011-2015). He also worked on the 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and produced his first rugby book with Graham Henry at the end of the tour. Since then, three more rugby books have followed, all of which of have either been nominated for, or won national sports book awards. The latest is a biography of Phil Larder, the first top Rugby League coach to successfully transfer over to Union. It is entitled “The Iron Curtain”. Nick has also written or contributed to four other books on literature and psychology. "He is currently writing articles for The Roar and The Rugby Site, and working as a strategy consultant to Stuart Lancaster and the Leinster coaching staff for their European matches."

Comments
Topic Set Piece
Applicable to Coaches   Players   Others   Supporters and fans   Managers   Youths, ands, highs, and schools   Sevens  

Related articles

How to exploit the ELV on defensive scrum-halves [from scrum] – part 2

Nick follows on from his earlier article on how the scrum has now became a favourite weapon of attack and the short-side was the red-hot area target zone.

Why the ‘Dupont’s Law’ change really makes a difference

The ‘Dupont’ law tweaks have already had a concrete impact on the value of the kick return, one which totally belies the relatively small scope of the word ‘tweak’ as Nick Bishop illustrates.

How to build your lineout drive attack in the ‘red zone’

Get creative with your limitations, to turn them into a strength appears yo be Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks mantra as Nick Bishop illustrates.

How to exploit the ELV on defensive scrum-halves

Nick Bishop evaluates the possible effect of the new ELV – shielding of the attacking scrum-half from interference at ruck and maul, introduced at the start of the RC2024.

How to use the use ‘the nail’ to generate LQB

With LQB at such a premium, Nick Bishop examines whether ball-placement after the tackle is a more reliable method of creating it than gain-line dominance.