Eddie Jones predicts ‘crackdown’ and calls on World Rugby to ‘show leadership’ after France denied Ireland a contest
France back-rower Francois Cros claims a lineout and an inset of Eddie Jones
Eddie Jones believes that World Rugby have an opportunity to be proactive and show leadership after a worrying trend emerged in the Six Nations.
He stated that after fellow ex-Wallabies head coach Ewen McKenzie highlighted the lack of a lineout contest during the tournament’s opener between France and Ireland on Thursday evening.
McKenzie said that France repeatedly set up a short, quick lineout with the players moving and jumping before the hooker even settled at the mark before throwing in.
Lineout contest issue raised
World Rugby have placed an emphasis on speeding up the game and limiting the amount of ball out of play time by introducing a shot-clock on the set-pieces and kicks at goal.
In November 2024, the World Rugby Council greenlit a host of global law trials, which included the one that skewed throws would no longer be punished if the defensive team did not contest in the air.
The updated law now reads: “18.23 The ball must: a. be thrown in straight along the mark of touch towards a lineout player;
“Sanction: If the non-throwing team does not lift a teammate to compete for the ball, then play shall continue. If the non-throwing team lift a teammate to compete for the ball, then they shall be offered the option of a lineout or scrum. If the lineout is chosen and the ball is again not thrown straight, a scrum is awarded to the team that originally threw in the ball.”
Former referee boss for the IRFU Owen Doyle has taken aim at the law trial and has urged World Rugby to address the matter and McKenzie has now aired similar concerns as he believes that Ireland weren’t provided with the opportunity to compete due to France’s tactics.
“There were times when the lineout was already in motion, and the French hooker wasn’t even in position,” he said in reaction to the game at the Stade de France.
“So I don’t know if that was tactical or excitement, but I thought this happened a couple of times, and I thought, ‘Well, is there something going on there?’ Because it does not give the hooker any time to stand there and get nervous, he just had to get there and literally toss the ball in. The whole lineout thing for me is different now.
“There’s no contest in the lineout now, the teams that run in and jump. I don’t know about the crooked throws or whatever, and how it’s applied.
“Does the contest have to be at the point the ball is won, or is this a contest in general? Like, if you lift in defence and the ball’s thrown crooked, is that a problem? Or do you have to lift in defence where the ball’s being won, and if it’s crooked, then the referee has to do something?
“There seems to be no real contest in the lineout anymore. So, that’s possibly a problem for the game in the future.”
Eddie Jones’ reaction
Jones added that he is uncertain about the exact phrasing of the law, adding that there may be too much room for interpretation from the referee, but insists that there has to at least be the opportunity to have a genuine contest for possession.
“I am not sure, mate,” he said in reference to the law trial.
“I don’t think anyone is, but France clearly had a tactic to get the ball in as quickly as possible and the simplicity of their lineout stood out. They won the ball, quickly shifted the ball from that point.
“I think generally the law is that there’s gotta be a genuine contest for the ball, for the referee to call it not straight, and a genuine contest is on the interpretation of the referee.
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“Has it got to be where the ball is won? Common sense, it would be.”
“I agree on that,” McKenzie replied.
“But the point is that, early in the game, both teams were just literally running in and jumping; it’s impossible to set any sort of meaningful defence on a shorter line, particularly at that point.
“Then, good on France, they were playing their forwards wider, much wider. If there’s no line contest in the lineout, then your second rowers don’t have to be able to jump as traditionally used to be the case, and France got a couple of really good, ball-carrying second-rowers and then Auradou came on.”
Need for a fair contest
Japan boss Jones returned to the debate on the lineout laws and hopes that World Rugby will act quickly to reinstate the contest for the remainder of the Six Nations.
He says that World Rugby have an opportunity to show leadership in doing so by not waiting around but acting swiftly.
“On Ewen’s point on the lineout, I think there’ll be a crackdown on that because you’re supposed to come in set, you’ve gotta allow the opposition to have the opportunity to match up numbers,” he said.
“So that’s something that’s crept into the game that’s been allowed over a period of time and if again they’re proactive, they’ll have a meeting on the weekend, and say, ‘Right, that’s the end of that. Send out an edict on Monday’ and that should stop. It’s a great opportunity for World Rugby to show some leadership.”
McKenzie hopes that Jones is right, as he doesn’t want the lineout to simply become a matter of restarting play with rugby built around the contest of possession.
“I don’t think you can say the lineout’s a contest when watching that game. It’s not really a contest, because there’s no pressure on if you haven’t got a contest in the air and you don’t have to throw the ball straight,” he explained.
“Then it’s really just a restart of play. So the question is how much of a contest they wanna make it. It’s one game and we’ll see how it goes but as a trend, teams have been moving in late and I think that’s a problem. They stand away, make a call, then they’ll come in and change position quickly.
“I think it’s an area they’ve gotta manage. To make sure that the lineout remains a contest, otherwise, it’s just a restart and play. So you might as well just tap the ball and go.”
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