There are well over 50 different plays in Steve Borthwick’s dossier of line-outs. An extensive menu of set-piece offerings that gets trimmed down closer to matchday, stored on digital files that are shared with the players over iPads and projector screens.
The line-out, it is fair to say, is Borthwick’s pride and joy. On the 2017 Lions tour of New Zealand, he would skip social drinks with his fellow coaches and study England footage on his laptop until the early hours. It is central to his philosophy, so more than a few eyebrows were raised when he sacrificed one of his jumping options in Dublin to deploy three men under 6ft 2in in the back row.
The line-out is like a game of poker and Borthwick is hoping this is one of his best hands yet. For a coach with a conservative reputation, it is a bold selection gamble. Why has he done it? By loading his pack with the turnover threat of Ben Earl, Tom Curry and Ben Curry, he is prioritising his team’s attempts to attack the breakdown, disrupting Ireland’s high-phase attack.
It has ramped up the pressure on new skipper Maro Itoje. As the only pure line-out technician in England’s pack, he will have to manage the set-piece against an Irish pack featuring three forwards over 6ft 6in.
What England lack in height, they must make up for with speed and smarts. As soon as the ball is kicked out into touch, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie will look to throw it back in quickly, leaving the opposition with minimal time to set up.
Ireland pride themselves on having more structural clarity than any team in Test rugby and England are hoping to find unstructured moments to attack. They will look to break through in the early phases because once the Irish defensive wall is in place, the challenge becomes significantly harder.
Steve Borthwick has a catalogue of line-out routines at his disposal for England’s Six Nations opener against Ireland
Borthwick will be prioritising his team’s ability to attack the breakdown against the reigning champions
During Friday’s captain’s run at the Aviva Stadium, reserve hooker Theo Dan was firing throws at Tom Willis like bullets. Coach Andrew Strawbridge was waving his hand in the catcher’s face at the same time, stress testing the set-piece manoeuvres.
‘Steve tries to pressure us in training,’ said Itoje. ‘He wants us to succeed in training but he doesn’t want us to succeed too much because that probably means we are not learning. So there is always a huge amount of challenge and different scenarios, whether it is playing with wet balls or reducing the time you have to set up and organise.’
Much of the battle will be done before the ball leaves Cowan-Dickie’s hands. This is not a line-out combination that Ireland will be familiar with, so relevant pre-match analysis footage is harder to come by. England will attempt to change their pictures at the very last second to make them harder to mark. All in the pursuit of creating space.
‘England change their shape often,’ said Ireland’s line-out caller Tadhg Beirne. ‘They drop someone out of line and bring someone in late, constantly changing picture, and it makes coming up with a line-out menu a bit difficult. You don’t know what they are going to try on you.’
When the line-out is set, the defensive team must match the number of attacking players in the line-out, with an attacking scrum-half traditionally standing as the ‘plus one’ to pass the ball out to the backs.
Savvy to rugby’s law book, England deploy a forward in the ‘plus one’ position, exploiting a loophole that permits the player to join the line-out once the ball leaves the hooker’s hands. At a split-second’s notice, it allows them to create an additional jumping pod that was not part of the original picture, scrambling the defensive organisation.
‘A lot of line-out calling is gambling, both attack and defence,’ said Ben Kay, who was England’s chief line-out caller when they won the 2003 World Cup. ‘You’re gambling that you’ve read what someone’s doing. Sometimes you’ll do a bad dummy to make the defender buy the dummy, then you come back into that zone. It’s almost like a double bluff. Little nuances like that.
‘You can get overly focused on height. It’s obviously important, but what’s just as important is your calling. You don’t ever really want to be one on one with an opposition jumper. What you’re trying to do is open up hesitation between a lifter and a jumper. A line-out is a chain of fluidity, so as soon as one person hesitates, it gets messed up.
Borthwick’s selection has heaped pressure on new England captain Maro Itoje as the pure line-out technician in England’s pack
Savvy to rugby’s law book, England deploy a forward in the ‘plus one’ position, exploiting a loophole
Luke Cowan-Dickiehas the best throwing stats in the Premiership this season, operating at about 95 per cent accuracy
‘The problem for England’s back row is whether those guys can do the subtle stuff. On the flip side, if Maro or George Martin get their hand on a ball on one of Ireland’s throws early on, then it will be a huge lift because it completely dislocates expectations.’
Look out for Itoje arriving last to the line-out set-up, so he can scan and identify the unmarked areas to exploit. Earl and Ben Curry have taken a single line-out for their clubs this season, while Tom Curry is regarded as a makeshift option.
They are, however, capable of jumping in a simple line-out move, allowing England to use them as an easy ‘checkout’ option if Itoje and Martin are closely marked.
Cowan-Dickie has the best throwing stats in the Premiership this season, operating at about 95 per cent accuracy. He is used to having just two natural jumpers in the line-outs at Sale, where he often plays with a back-row combination of the Curry twins and Jean-Luc du Preez.
Rather than deploying a full seven-man line-out, expect England to shorten their set-piece to just four men, leaving some of their stronger ball-carriers out in the backline.
Physically, Bath exploited Ireland No 10 Sam Prendergast in the Champions Cup last month and England will look to do the same.
‘If England have an opportunity to kick for touch from around halfway, they may be happy taking a line-out around the 22, so Marcus Smith can play,’ said Kay. ‘Ollie Lawrence, Ben Curry and Earl are prime carriers off the line-out in the Premiership so if you’re running all three of them, then you’re looking at a collision win. They may be more inclined towards that than really pushing the kick for a five-metre maul.’
Look out for trick plays, such as Curry looping around from the back of the line-out to claim a no-lift throw. Skewed throws are now allowed if the opponents do not compete, so England could look to cause mischief by finding areas where Ireland cannot execute a lift.
Borthwick will not be afraid to deploy trick plays to gain an edge over their opponents in Dublin
Borthwick laid his trap in broad daylight and we will soon find out if Ireland take the bait
The big risk is that Ireland establish an overwhelming dominance at the line-out. They had the highest steal percentage in last year’s Six Nations and could kick for touch at every opportunity if the tide is behind them.
‘Our team want to go about the game in a different way,’ said Itoje. ‘We have enough line-out jumpers. It is a massive part of the game and we have a well-oiled machine. If you look at our statistics, we are pretty strong in terms of ball-winning. My job as a caller will be to manipulate space and hopefully call good calls so we can win plenty of clean ball.’
Borthwick has the giant safety blanket of Willis, Ollie Chessum and Chandler Cunningham-South on the bench. If the ploy is not working, then he can quickly change philosophy.
Yet England’s meticulous coach will not have drawn up his strategy on the back of a cigarette packet. He named his team early, letting Ireland know exactly what is coming. He has laid his trap in broad daylight and we will soon find out if Ireland take the bait.
