While a good lineout needs multiple people and multiple actions to come together at once, the hooker will always come into the firing line when something goes wrong.
As such, Saturday's Guinness Women's Six Nations opener against France in Belfast will have been a satisfying one for Ireland’s hooking pair, Neve Jones and Cliodhna Moloney.
The pair combined for a lineout success of 95%, hitting the target on 18 of their 19 attempts, a marked improvement on previous Six Nations championships where Ireland averaged 69% and 61% in the past two years.
Most of the credit from the players has been laid at the hands of Alex Codling, the former Newcastle Falcons boss who has came in as forwards coach in the summer, and has stitched together what had been an inconsistent setpiece into a real attacking weapon, which they hope to advance further in Sunday's meeting with Italy in Parma.
"The lineout was a huge success, I just think Codders coming in has done a fantastic job with us," Jones said of Codling’s influence.
"There’s a full buy-in with all of the girls. We don’t have questions, we push each other and work really hard when we are training together.
"It’s definitely something we have worked on and want to have as a strength of ours and will continue to do so as the weeks go on."
As much as the lineout is about the sum of its parts, Jones (above) has made adjustments to her throwing.
It’s a remarkably precise and fine motor skill to have to execute during a game of such attrition. Ireland men’s hooker Rónan Kelleher has previous described it as having to step out of a round of a boxing ring and hit a golf shot.
"That’s back to Codders, he’s done some great work with myself and the other hookers to improve on our throw and be confident," she said.
"He has put time and work into us and put us in contact with people in the club to grow our strength away from here.
"I think it is just the confidence and he’s tweaked a few things here and there but nothing huge, because every hooker is different and throws differently so he doesn’t want to change too much. He just wants to instil that we’ve got it in the tank and just do it when it comes to the weekend."
Scott Bemand is hoping Ireland can cut down on handling errors and be more clinical with their chances as they aim to bounce back from their opening #SixNations defeat to France in Italy on Sunday pic.twitter.com/WfUdQd97mW
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) March 27, 2025
Thee 26-year-old had a typically industrious shift against the French last Saturday. In addition to a strong lineout performance, she also touched down at the back of a maul for Ireland’s second try of the game, while she also contributed a combined 15 tackles and carries in her 55 minutes on the pitch.
The defensive side of the game is one that Jones has been a standout in over her international career, consistently appearing high up on the tackle count.
And while the Ulster woman is one of the smallest players on the pitch, standing at 5ft 2 in, she says her love of tackling stems right back to playing rugby in the family home with her father Dave, and her two siblings.
"It’s just a bit of craic," she laughs, when asked about her defensive work.
"I worked a lot with my Dad growing up. I played mini rugby from six or seven, something like that. Being the smallest on the pitch my Dad was like 'we’ll work on the tackle’.
"He played rugby and rugby league, so he’s got a good base of the contact area game so did a little bit growing up and just continued to grow as I did too.
"He had us playing from like two or three in the living room, tackling each other.
"He always sends me a little spiel after a game saying 'This was good, well done on this, work a bit on this,' a bit of a synopsis of my game. He's a huge supporter of mine and I'm really thankful for everything he's done."
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