Who Should Be The Wallabies Starting Hooker?

I was on Twitter on the weekend saying that I could see problems with Tatafu Polota-Nau’s lineout throwing and that was dragging the Wallabies’ lineout performance down.

I also said that I was surprised Stephen Moore had not been selected as the starting hooker. A number of people replied saying that the statistics showed the Wallabies lineout had been pretty good throughout the series against Wales and that TPN hadn’t done too badly.

The statistics will tell you that the Wallabies won 84.38% of their lineouts in the series. Taking out quick lineouts, that number falls to 83.33%. I think winning north of 85% of your own lineouts in Test rugby indicates you’ve got a pretty good lineout so the Wallabies don’t look too bad.

However, once again I don’t think the headline statistics tell the full story and I’m going to dig further into the numbers to justify my view of who should be the Wallabies starting hooker.

In my opinion the number one consideration when selecting a hooker should be his lineout throwing. While there’s nothing stopping another player in a team being the lineout thrower, in professional rugby it would be very rare to see anyone other than the hooker throwing the ball into lineouts (except when there is no hooker on the field due to injuries or yellow cards).

Let’s start with which of the two Wallabies hookers had the better percentage of lineouts won. Lineouts won with TPN throwing were 78.26% while with Moore throwing the Wallabies achieved 100.00%.

As you’ll see from the video that is included in this article, winning lineouts is not just about the performance of the thrower. Whether the caller correctly identifies space, the quality of the lift and jump, and the defensive work of the opposition can all affect the outcome.

To really understand the job a lineout thrower is doing I work through every lineout to identify what impact each of the lineout components had on the result. Sometimes a throw may look poor if it sails over the jumper’s head, but that may be the result of the lifters and jumper being too slow. In some cases a poor throw can still deliver possession, through luck or good recovery work.

Having looked at all the Wallabies lineouts during the series against Wales here’s how I rated the lineout throwing performance of each hooker.

Based on that performance I say there is no doubt that Stephen Moore should have been the starting hooker for the Wallabies — and the change should have been made after the first Test.

I believe that the difference in performance with their lineout throwing should preclude any further need to discuss the merits of the two players. However, I know a lot of people think TPN is a better scrummager and also want to consider performance in general play.

On your own feed the number one job of your hooker is to rake for the ball — the engagement has been won or lost before they get their feet back on the ground and can help pushing. If the engagement has been lost, it’s too late for them to make much difference in the push. On opposition ball, if the decision is made not to strike for the ball then the hooker has a bigger role to play in acting as another prop. There’s nothing that would be evident to us as spectators that would indicate whether the hooker made an impact in a scrum or not, so we’re just guessing if we try to say one hooker is a better scrummager than another.

Let’s look at performance in general play as well.

I don’t see anything in those numbers that is so significant to justify overlooking the difference I’ve shown in lineout throwing.

This video takes a further look at TPN’s lineout throwing

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