All Blacks: Lineouts get a welcome lift

Anthony Boric. Photo / Getty Images

He's no fan of the lofty lineout platform, but All Blacks rugby lock Anthony Boric says the team's new-age drills have taken their set piece to a new level.

Boric and Jason Eaton will lock the All Blacks' scrum against the Barbarians at Twickenham on Sunday, hoping to continue the excellent work of the lineout as their biggest nemesis, Victor Matfield, does his best to spoil it.

After the mid-year horrors against the Springboks where the wonky lineout and Matfield's skill contributed to three Tri-Nations defeats, all is rosy, for now.

Boric said the lineout success on this tour was due to the team spending more time honing their skills in small groups.

"Once you have a couple of good games together and you have that confidence as a group, there's a bit more emphasis than in the past," Boric said.

"Every day we're doing something on the lineout, working out sequences so there's a pretty high amount of effort gone in."

Their pre-throw movements were much better, Boric said, with the object to remove the 50-50 contest aspect from the throw as much as possible.

Hookers Andrew Hore and Corey Flynn had also introduced the metal lineout platform, where a jumper will perch on top and simulate the height to give the throwers an accurate target.

Even though it seemed to work, the 2m-tall lock was more than happy for someone else to be the guinea pig.

"I don't like it all, I hate it, I get scared up there. Flynny's got me up there a few weeks ago and I just wanted to get down."

Boric locked once against Matfield, in Dunedin last year, and said he learned plenty about studying opponents and anticipating their movements.

Matfield may not be as imposing on Sunday, Boric felt, purely because he wouldn't be in synch with the well-oiled Springboks' lineout machine.

There is still a point to prove for Boric, the 13-test lock who has watched Tom Donnelly move ahead of him in the pecking order here as he works his way back from a broken toe. He is keen to make up for lost time, along with several teammates starved of much game time on this tour.

"I'd definitely be one of them. I missed a lot of the year through injury and I'm feeling pretty fresh. I'll take a couple of weeks off but I'm pretty keen to get into the Super 14."

- NZPA