Retired England tighthead prop Dan Cole has accused the All Blacks lineout of “falling apart” in last weekend’s record Rugby Championship defeat to the Springboks.
New Zealand were humbled 10-43 in Wellington, with their final quarter collapse triggered by what the Test centurion English front-rower described as “possibly the worst four-man lineout in the world”.
Down 10-17 on the scoreboard, the All Blacks had a 61st-minute lineout five metres from their own line where the throw from replacement Brodie McAlister was stolen by South Africa’s Ruan Nortje.
Three phases later, Damian Willemse was crashing over for a Springboks try and that score ignited a one-sided finish to the match that left Scott Robertson’s team in tatters.
“I feel for the hooker there…”
Cole has now shared his thoughts on the seminal Round Four match, sticking the boot in on the All Blacks for failing to rectify the lineout difficulties they encountered in Auckland in the previous week’s win over South Africa.
Although they won that Round Three encounter 24-17, the All Blacks were 12 from 15 on their own lineout ball and that ratio got worse in Wellington where they finished with nine successful throws from 13 – that’s an accuracy of just 75 per cent (21/28) across two matches.
Appearing on For The Love Of Rugby, the podcast he co-hosts with fellow retired England player Ben Youngs, Cole didn’t shy away from criticising the All Blacks’ set-piece malfunction.
“The big part of the game for New Zealand was their lineout fell apart, which didn’t help,” Cole began. “New Zealand were in the wringer in that they couldn’t get out of their own half, South Africa would steal the ball and then put them back in their own half. It was, ‘Someone is going to crack’, and it was the Kiwis that did.”
The match was 56 minutes old when the inexperienced McAlister replaced Samisoni Taukei’aho at hooker, and he imploded five minutes later when failing to hit Scott Barrett out of touch near their own line.
“New Zealand probably do what could possibly be the worst four-man lineout in the world when you know exactly where it is going,” suggested Cole.
“I feel for the hooker there… sometimes there will be a dummy and if the other team doesn’t bite on it, they know that they are going up exactly alongside your ball.
“It’s like you almost end up throwing it to them because you are aware they are in your eyeline and as the hooker is releasing it, you know it’s getting intercepted. They did that and South Africa three phases later scored with Willemse under the post – and basically that’s the game.”
Quizzed by ex-scrum-half Youngs whether this general lineout inconsistency was specifically a New Zealand issue or was it because South Africa get so many jumpers in their air, Cole answered: “It’s both.
“South Africa have a lot of tall bodies and pride themselves on the set-piece, but New Zealand are playing their third-choice hooker basically. Codie Taylor, who is a great leader and a great hooker, is out injured so although the third hooker would be in camp, they are not getting the same amount of reps everyone else has got.
“Then you have got different combinations to throw to under pressure, and you are up against it playing against the Springboks. Everything has to be double top, and it wasn’t. But it’s fixable. Of course it is fixable, like we saw on the (British and Irish) Lions tour.”
Cole then posed a lineout teaser. “With the new law, the ball can be not straight providing the opposition doesn’t jump, I’d love to see if there have been more not straights.
“Previously, you might find that the ball was not straight in the contest but the referee is like ‘play on’, but now they almost have to referee it. I do think there has been a lot more not straight lineouts and pressure. I don’t know if that is because hookers are basically practicing it.
“Previously you had to throw it straight. Now they can just throw it to their own bloke, and they can practice a bad drill, put it that way, or whether it [the not straight] is just referees picking it up more. It seems that the law designed to speed up the game is actually slowing it down.”
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