What a Joke

[archie]

'Jackman not to blame for line-out woes' -- O'Sullivan

By Hugh Farrelly
Monday February 25 2008


IRELAND coach Eddie O'Sullivan has defended hooker Bernard Jackman after his line-out problems against Scotland on Saturday, WRITES HUGH FARRELLY.


After similar difficulties in Paris, Jackman struggled to find his jumpers at Croke Park before being substituted just after half-time but O'Sullivan says the line-out difficulties cannot be blamed on one individual.

Second row Mick O'Driscoll was responsible for calling the line-outs against Scotland and the Ireland coach claimed yesterday that some of the calls "weren't right".

"I won't blame any one individual. People spent years blaming John Hayes for the problems at the scrum, but it's a collective thing. Jackman may have under-cooked a few throws at the start but some of the calls weren't right either. Bringing two ball carriers in Jackman and Jamie Heaslip into the side always meant a trade-off at the line-out."

- Hugh Farrelly


What a joke that is from Eddie. How can it not be Jackman's fault when he was called 3 times for not throwing it straight! The bloke is useless and it is a load of rubbish about how brilliant he is in the loose. Best makes more tackles and hits more rucks and I have not seen Jackman exactly making massive yards in the last two games!

With Flannary back for the Wales game I feel Eddie will put him on the bench so one of Best or Jackman is going to be dropped from the 22. Having seen this article I now feel it will be Best which will be a complete joke. He is so underated by the media and fans alike.

Eddie get a grip. Jackman is a good club man but is not up to International level.

[cables]

I won't blame any one individual.

So he throws Mick O'D's name into the blame pool when none of us even knew he had made calls which "weren't right".

MO'D was making his 3rd start. The first was a year ago. The 2nd was in the 2nd team tour last summer. Yet, he gets handed the responsibility of deciding the lineout calls! What's wrong with DO'C, Hayes, Wallace, Leamy?

[browner]

"I won't blame any one individual.

That might just come back to haunt him.

[Rooster]

The calls don't make a hooker throw crooked as happened with his last 2 misses

[againstthehead]

Stready Eddie rarely admits he is wrong. I fully expect Best to be dropped with Flannery starting at 2.

[Neil F]

This means that, according to O'Sullivan, there have been problems with the lineout calls in all three games of the 6 Nations so far? If this is the case, it begs one to ask a question about why these problems haven't been dealt with in training. Let's face it, the problem is that Jackman can only hit O'Callaghan with any degree of regularity - his throws are either far too slow to get to the jumpers in time or, when Jackman tries to inject pace into the lineout throw, it doesn't go in straight. If the calls are wrong then Jackman isn't helping. Even Matthews was calling for Jackman to go on Saturday. I'm sure it wasn't lost on anyone that Rory's first lineout had the identical call of Jackman's first throw - Rory's went straight to Ireland hands.

Despite O'Sullivan's inadequacies, I can't see anything other than Best and Flannery in the 22 next week with Best starting on account of Flannery not having played in 6 weeks.

[Shan]

Eddie has finally lost it.This stuff about MOD is tripe.In both the matches against France and Scotland the lineout improved when Jackman came off.I believe both Best and MOD were the cause of the improvement in the French game and again on Saturday it was much better after Best came on but by no means perfect.It's seems fairly safe to say then that Jackman is the main cause of the problem.Once this has been righted by dropping him from the squad we can get around to fixing the other problems which exist in the lineout, whether that is clearer and better calls or making sure our jumpers are up in time and making sure we are not attempting any high risk throws etc.I am all in favour of coaches not publicly criticising players but would like this to be applied to Murphy and MOD as well as Jackman.I still don't understand why we needed to bring two more ball carriers when we already have so many expecially when this means we are giving up the chance to secure this ball.What are all these ball carriers going to be doing when we only have 20% of the ball anyway?

[darkside lightside]

Stready Eddie rarely admits he is wrong. I fully expect Best to be dropped with Flannery starting at 2.

likewise, shame because i really like Jackman as a player. i'd love to give him the benefit of the doubt but TBH most of his throws were visibly off line on sat..

What are all these ball carriers going to be doing when we only have 20% of the ball anyway?

exactly, we were living off scraps in the first half on sat - all our ball carriers were doing was tackling...

[ColinM]

Bringing two ball carriers in Jackman and Jamie Heaslip into the side always meant a trade-off at the line-out."

Back to the old pash about Easterbunny being a 'world class operator' at the tail of the lineout....

[Rooster]

Irish lineout is a complete joke, I can pick the receiver in at least 80% of the throws by the way the players form up, but Jackman takes it to a whole new level as he can't even get it near the jumpers most times, a couple of Saturdays were so crooked he might as well just have passed the ball straight to Reddan and there was no wind to blame.
He might carry the ball at times but he is AWOL when it comes to scrapping on the deck for possible turnovers, this makes him look good if up against a poor set of forwards but he is not International standard by any means, could he possibly be worst hooker in 6 Nations ?

[Neil F]

I can't help but agree, Rooster - I don't think any of us would doubt his form for Leinster this season and his call into the squad is justified but after his performance against France, to start him against Scotland was criminal. The only aspect of his method of play that really came through against France was the surge forward. Despite all the plaudits that he was taking for his 'performance around the park', it seems totally lost on everyone that this is the least important aspect of playing hooker - lineout, breakdown and scrum are all far more important. Jackman stood up well in the scrum but he offers nothing at the lineout and not a whole lot at the breakdown. A good club player enjoying a good season at Leinster he may well be. An international quality player he is not.

Back to the old pash about Easterbunny being a 'world class operator' at the tail of the lineout....

I'm sure I wasn't the only one that was taken aback by when Eddie first came out with that comment about Easterby at the lineout. True enough, in the opening moments against Wales last season, the lineout ball went straight towards Easterby and straight through Easterby's hands...

[Ithryn]

agreed roster, he does not rate very highly in the opinions off pundits from the other nations