Munster working on fixing 'panicky' lineout issues

If you have watched Munster across the last couple of games, you wouldn't need to be an expert to identify their problem area right now.

Through five rounds of games in the BKT United Ruby Championship, the province's lineout could generously be described as a mess.

With a success rate of just 79%, their lineout ranks as the second worst in the URC this season, with Zebre the only side who have a worse retention rate on their own throw.

It’s not a new phenomenon. Last season Munster were also inconsistent at lineout time, hitting their mark at 83% - which ranked 13 out of 16 – while the 39 throws they lost was the fifth highest tally in the league.

The last two weekends in particular, though, have turned an area of inconsistency into one of urgency.

After losing five of their own throws against Leinster in Croke Park, they regressed further in Cape Town against the Stormers, winning just eight of their 14 throws. In the last two weeks their record is 19 out of 30 for a sobering 63%.

Lineouts aren’t meant to be easy. Ireland international Rónan Kelleher once compared it to being in the middle of a boxing match and having to step out to take a golf swing, stepping away from the physical chaos to execute something so technical and surgical.

Because of the speed the game now operates at, every little movement has to be precise at the lineout.

The obvious element is that the throw has to be right, but the timing of the throw is dependent on the timing of the jump, and the timing of the jump is dependent on the timing of the lift, and the timing of the lift is dependent on the timing of the trigger. And if you get all that right, you still need to beat the opposition in the air.

When one of those elements is off, each element becomes