RWC RANT NO. 8

Author’s Note: If you love your rugby but you’re not into scrums you shouldn read this, but if you love scrums it’s all rudimentary so you can give it a miss.

What I love about the RWC is it unites people from all walks of life and brings new fans to the game every 4 years. What prompted me to write this was a conversation I had during lunch with a mate today and he was telling me his niece was trying to learn more about rugby and gain a better understanding of the game. And let’s face it, sometimes this game can be confusing even to those of us who have played, coached and have watched it for years, so spare a thought for the newbies and when it comes to scrummaging it must be confusing at times when penalties are awarded.

As a proud former member of the engine room, I love talking about scrums and anything to do with collisions, pushing or lifting that happens on the field. And yes, forwards generally speak another language when it comes to scrums because of the plethora of permutations that can occur during each body-part movement, so when it comes to talking about scrums – even among rugby friends – I either get the lean forward, the blank stare or the crossed arms accompanied by the rolling of the eyes.

So here it goes! Scrums, love them or hate them they’re part of the game and I hope they continue to stay and remain a genuine contest for the ball. But what I fail to understand is why the referees still get so many scrum penalties wrong? It’s been happening during this World Cup and it was rife during the Wales vs England game, and it will be happening when the Wallabies take on England this Sunday morning. Currently, teams are infringing before the ball has even entered the scrum – nothing new there – and I certainly haven’t got a problem with props trying to get an edge and yes, some may say it’s cheating – but it’s only cheating if you get caught – my issue is the number of times the ref awards the penalty to the wrong team. In days gone by, the props simply sorted it out and the smart refs let them do it.

I’m not going to bore anyone who could be bothered reading this with the 10 different things that might happen in the front row which may lead to a penalty, but here’s one or may be two. A prop boring (angling) in on his opponent. It’s occurrence is pretty straight forward and the law is clear. Law 20.1 (j) says the scrum should be stationary and parallel until the ball leaves the scrum half’s hands. Look at the image (prop at the top of the pic with an arrow on his back) and ask this question, is he parallel to the other players? I think not! While I haven’t included a picture, the same theory applies from side-on, you can see whether props backs are straight or slightly arched, if their head is slightly above or below their hips, the angle of their legs from the knee joint and its alignment with their torso, if their knees are in front or behind their hips, the positioning of their feet and their bind on the other prop. They all tell the story and should answer every question the ref needs to know to get the decision right at least 80% of the time. But they still get it wrong.

Surely, if an assistant referee or the TMO can see foul play or a host of other infringements while play is moving they can certainly watch for these things, especially the TMO. As viewers, we often get the aerial view or the side-on ground shot and the pundits pick up all the stuff I mentioned above in a millisecond, so why can’t the TMO tell the ref through the earpiece as he/she is watching it? I’m sure the broadcaster would provide whichever angle they wanted, they would only need to ask. Problem solved?

Here are some facts you didn’t really need to know…

Combined stats from RWC2011, Super Rugby and 6 Nations over the past few seasons relating to scrums.

> Average total time scrums took up during a game: 14 mins 40 sec
> Average number of Scrums per game: 15.6
> Average time of each scrum: 56.2 sec

(some rounding has happened and it’s approximate)

14 minutes is more than 10% of the game so it should warrant some more attention from the referees, I’m just not sure how we transfer the knowledge and get them to apply it correctly?

Not an overly exciting post but I just love scrums!

PS: There are some great articles on this stuff if you’re really interested in it.