Age-grade line-out lifting

[DaveR]

I was doing an U16 game and pinged a line-out jumper for early lift (before the ball had been thrown in). The coach, during the interval, said he'd been on a recent lineout course and that lift-before-throw was legal. This is contrary to law 18.20 and I can't see anything in Reg 15 that allows lifting prior to the throw. I played out the rest of the game as law 18.20. Was the coach right for age-grade competition?

 

[didds]

A few seasons ago when coaching an U15 team (or whenever uncontested lineouts occur with a view to lifting anhyway) we played a game where the oppo not only didnt even attempt to lift for their lineouts, but didnt even jump. They just threw the ball in, and caught it standing then played from there, as there was "less chance of my team knocking on, missing the ball" according to oppo coach.

I just thought all said caoch was doling was kicking the can down the road until a time when the oppo could contest and then his lads were learning/developing without any protections form the oppo. Wierd.

 

[Flish]

My U15 squad have done a lot of work on the line out and already have lads confident in lifting, jumping, setting and popping and it really works for us - but we worked on this as a set piece we can be good at as in reverse our scrum will be poor, just the dynamics of the squad and physicality we have - not something we can change, and it's kids so this will back and forth over time, but I agree, they won't get any better by not doing!

 

[chbg]

School U15 SF this afternoon - one team lifted, successfully enough, the other team didn't. The team that didn't lift hadn't done enough coaching for it to be useful - probably didn't start from 1 Dec, and a school team usually includes those who only play at school, and not with a club. Anyway, the non-lifters probably had more success with their LO (and won, being a better team overall, although the best 3 players were on the losing side).