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(L to R) Australian rugby union players Salesi Ma'afu, Huia Edmonds and Ben Alexander practice a scrum formation during a training session in Sydney. AAP Image/Paul Miller.
Rugby scrums need to be improved. How many times do we see scrums having to be reset? How many ‘hard to understand’ penalties do we see given at the scrum?
Scrums as they are slow down the game, are frustrating to watch, and the all to frequent resultant penalties have too much influence on the course of the game.
I believe that scrums can become a featured highlight of the game. Remember when lineouts were scrappy affairs that often were not decisive, and in too many cases resulted in scrums to decide the issue, or penalties.
Now lineouts are entertaining to watch, are skillful in execution and allow tactics and strategies, provide a spectacle with the high flying jumpers, rarely result in penalties, and usually provide a result first go.
The significant change and improvement to rugby lineouts, came not from improvements by players or coaches, but from changes to the laws of the game and to attitudes.
For example, once lifting in the lineout was illegal and frowned upon. Now it is a great feature of the lineout and one that has supported lineouts going from being a ‘blight on the game’ to becoming a ‘jewel in the crown’. For this improvement to happen, we had to change our thinking and the rules. The change was well worthwhile.
In a similar way, a change to traditional thinking about scrums, and some rule changes, could result in an even more dramatic improvement in scrums than the improvement that happened with lineouts.
Current scrum laws are no longer workable, as evidenced in many of the Test and Super Rugby scrums that I have been watching over the last ‘how many years’. Players are stronger and fitter, and more trained these days, and scrums are packed so much lower. But scrums rarely provide a result first up, if at all.
As well as scrums not being workable, as in the constant resets and penalties, they are not contests in the way that they should be. Can you remember the last time that you saw a hooker strike for the ball? And the less said about that disgrace of allowing the ball to be fed into your own side of the scrum, the better.
In the preceding I have discussed the problem, and now here is my proposed solution. The major change is to packing the scrum. The second change is to feeding the scrum.
As an old loose head prop from way back, I can remember that a mortal sin of scrummaging was to engage with the opponent’s scrum before your own scrum was packed and ready. This has to change. With my proposed changes, the current system of crouch, touch, pause, engage is replaced with a new sequence.
The referee calls ‘front’ and the two front rows only, pack against each other. The referee waits until this structure is stable and honest and then calls ‘second’ and the second rows from each team pack in. They can push but not off the mark.
When this structure is stable and honest the referee calls ‘back’ and then the backrow, ie the locks and breakaways from each team pack in. Once again they can push but not off the mark. When this complete scrum is stable and honest then the referee calls ‘feed’ and the half must immediately feed the ball into the center of the scrum.
This will mean that the scrums are formed in a fair and stable way and will result in considerably less collapses, resets and penalties. It does away with the clash but that is a good thing. There is too much power in scrums today for the clash to be safe, and it is a major contributor to collapses and scrum instability.
What is gained is a scrum that will be inherently more stable that will allow for the contest of striking for the ball by the hookers and the props, and this stability will allow for that spectacular show of dominance and power that is demonstrated by one team pushing the other team back in the scrum, sometimes resulting in a pushover try. Who doesn’t love that. But it is a rarity these days because of scrum instability.
When the half feeds the scrum it will have to be done straight. Lineout throws have to be straight, and there is no reason to accept that scrum feeds should be other than straight. I propose that if any team incurs three scrum feed penalties in a game, then the referee feeds the remainder of that team’s scrum feeds for the game.
Alternatively, the sanction for an incorrect feed would be to give the feed to the opposing team. In addition, I would not allow the half to proceed past the centre line of the scrum until the ball is out. If a team is good enough to win the scrum then they deserve to have clean ball around the base of the scrum.
I believe that these changes would not only solve a problem for rugby, but would result in a much better game to play and watch, and they would make scrums a positive feature that we can be proud of and enjoy even more so than the changes to the lineout some years back.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.