All Blacks: Seven players, one ball, where's the catch, then?

New All Black lock Tom Donnelly takes over lineout duties. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It should be simple. Seven blokes waiting in a line, your throw, your choice on when and where you want to deliver the ball.

But once again this season the All Black lineout has more wobbles than a newborn foal.

Statistics reveal they have lost about 25 per cent of their lineout throws this season.

While coach Steve Hansen might like to "flush the dunny and move on" from those mishaps, as he suggested after the shabby win against Italy, the recurring problems are impacting heavily on the All Blacks' progress.

Hansen does not see the need for any more help, he believes there is enough expertise within the squad from the extended coaching staff and playing roster to fix the problems.

Stubborn? Maybe. Successful? Dunno, but the staff have made several changes to their side this week that will have an impact on their lineout success.

Promising No 8 Kieran Read will make the calls for the last domestic test in Wellington tomorrow against the Wallabies. His options have changed.

Longtime provincial lock Tom Donnelly will suit up for his debut, beanpole blindsider Adam Thomson will be another target and the bulky Neemia Tialata will be a new lifter.

Two former national coaching rivals, Laurie Mains and John Hart, have voiced similar concerns to those aired by Sean Fitzpatrick, Murray Pierce and Gary Whetton about the problems.

"The lineout problems have been ongoing for a number of years now and things really need to be kept much more simple," Mains observed.

"I would like to see our jumpers move a lot more on the ground to create the space they need. They have become too easy to compete against because they have not done enough work first on the ground."

Mains accepted that the lineouts were a very complex area of the modern game where four people had to be in concert to claim the ball while others needed to be offering some deception.

"It is just as crucial for a few to be offering some body language to create a diversion as it is for the hooker, two lifters and the jumper to connect."

By this stage of the season, Mains said, the lineout should be far more in sync but the teamwork was not up to scratch.

"I have seen uncertainty, lack of co-ordination and teamwork," he said.

"The precision required at the top level is not there and if you look at the best Springbok lineout, you will see precision, understanding and skill which makes the execution a lot easier and creates confidence."

Hansen tried to excuse the woes in Hamilton by pointing out the second-half recovery.

He also defended the skills of backup hooker and thrower Aled de Malmanche, though it is noticeable he has not been trusted for one minute in the two tests since Keven Mealamu's season was wrecked by injury.

"It is tough waiting to come on but Aled has the mental capacity to deal with that," Hansen said.

The lineout coach did not believe the side was showing systems or mental failures.

"It is only external pressure. The internal pressure is the same every week, they have got to win their set piece ball at scrum lineout and restarts. So it does not change, as long as you can deflect the external pressure it is no different.

"We have been working on that this week, what we've got to do, when we have got to do it, how we've got to do it and go out and do it. And enjoy it. They enjoy doing it, and that's important."

Hansen acknowledged there was a tide of criticism about the performance but gave a cameo defence of his troops. They were without Ali Williams and that had some effect in the same way it would hurt the Boks if they had to make do without Victor Matfield.

He then tried to deflect the error rate by pointing out if that if there were no mistakes in sport, Roger Federer would win every Grand Slam and Serena Williams would not behave as she had.

Sportsmen and women had to live with and accept there would be mistakes.

There had been some technical defects and human errors in the All Black lineout at Hamilton when the backlifter disappeared. Hansen explained that away as players thinking one step ahead to the next move.

Hart said lineouts were never his area of expertise but he watched the Springboks and marvelled at the simplicity of their work.

"I just wonder if we get a bit too complicated," he said.

"The team throwing the ball in should have the advantage, they know where it is going and when and it surprises me that we are still struggling with our lineout.

"I am perplexed. We should be training this but it seems to me, watching from the sidelines, that it was our mistiming on several throws, not them beating us. We seem to be lacking confidence," Hart suggested.

"I wonder if we are making the lineouts too complicated. We try to confuse people and maybe we are confusing ourselves.

"I do not see a lot of movement with the Boks who throw, jump and lift well."

The All Blacks' most decorated lock, Ian Jones, believes the buildup to the lineouts is too slow.

Jones takes as keen an interest in this area of the game through his television work as he did during his playing days when he accumulated 79 caps.

He believes the All Blacks have to speed up everything about their lineout. When it is their ball, he contends, they have to make their call, set their line and fire, whereas their deliberate approach gives their rivals more time to pick their defensive strike.

Those are the sort of nuances lineout forwards like Jones would appreciate but, so far, there has been no call to him, Robin Brooke, Ali Williams, Tom Cobbleigh or anyone outside the camp as Steve Hansen and his crew stoically march on.