Bok lineout: Good ... could be better

Cape Town - Virtually throughout the marathon Victor Matfield era as a Test combatant, South Africa's lineout ranked among the very best worldwide for routine levels of excellence ... even through some tough times in a more general rugby capacity.

It was a luxury enjoyed for a long time, when you consider that the now SuperSport television pundit remains the most capped Springbok with 127, spanning a period between 2001 and 2015 and his later years especially renowned for his mastery of the trade as his street-wisdom only blossomed.

Apart from being a spring-heeled jumper second to none, Matfield was a great reader of opposition intentions in the lineout, and a devout scientist in studying the art when not actually between the white lines.

So when he says there is room to sharpen up the current Bok lineout, there aren't many reasons to believe he is smoking his socks.

It would have been apparent to most observers anyway that the particular set-piece has fired a little more fitfully than is most desirable for the national team in the first two Tests of the 2019 Rugby Championship, featuring the 35-17 triumph over Australia in Johannesburg and 16-16 draw with New Zealand in Wellington just last Saturday.

While banking some own-throw balls securely enough and managing a useful poach here and there, on each occasion there were also a few expensively flaky Bok lineouts, first when Bongi Mbonambi was the starter at hooker against the Wallabies, and then seeping into the All Black game where Malcolm Marx began in the No 2 jersey.

Even in this post-Matfield era, the Boks have plenty of jumpers - many of them immensely tall timber - with highly proven credentials in the department, including their frontline quartet of current locks (Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Franco Mostert and RG Snyman) and renowned factors toward to the tail in Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit and others.

Yet speaking on the Afrikaans rugby chat show SuperRugby earlier this week, Matfield said the Boks were "not quite there" by their lofty reputational standards at lineout time.

He urged them to seek "better tempo" on their own throw-in, noting that they were possibly over-elaborating the lineout set-up.

Matfield said the mass creation of "dummy pods" was potentially disrupting their polish, and sometimes only making it a little easier for foes to mess up their plans.

A great deal of movement ahead of the throw has become especially commonplace in current Test and first-class rugby, and the former Bok maestro clearly feels South Africa should consider minimising that to a greater degree.

Although they lead the overall table after two rounds and could well clinch the title with victory against Argentina at Salta in just under a fortnight, the Boks, according to at least one statistical report, currently lie only third of the four competitors for lineout win percentage.

They are running at 85.2 percent, behind both the Wallabies (90) and Pumas (86.7) with the All Blacks bringing up the rear.

The accuracy of their throwing-in to the lineout is not generally considered the best part of the overall arsenal of either frontline Bok hooker, Marx and Mbonambi - both more revered for their fire-and-brimstone qualities in open play - so they will remain under some scrutiny there in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Indeed, if either were to start getting too regularly wayward, it might bring closer to the match-day frame again the true squad veteran in the position, 38-year-old Schalk Brits.

It is probably not too wide of the mark to suggest that the Boks haven’t had a consistently, truly bulls-eye thrower since the retirement of Adriaan Strauss at the end of 2016 ...