A method and apparatus are for coating a field joint of a pipeline. The method includes positioning a mold tool around the field joint to define a mold cavity, positioning an insert to lie within the mold cavity, and injecting plastics material into the mold cavity to embed the insert in the plastics material. The apparatus has a mold tool positionable around the field joint to define a mold cavity, and an insert positionable within the mold cavity to be embedded in plastics material injected into the mold cavity. Use of an insert in this way reduces the volume of the molten thermoplastics material required to coat the field joint, thereby increasing the interface area of the melt relative to its volume, to the benefit of cooling time.