Law Discussion: Scrum figures
Before the November Tests started the top refereeing people gathered in London and had a lot to say about the scrums. After the first full week of November, there was much miserable controversy about scrums after New Zealand suffered in Milan. That produced greater refereeing awareness in the second week.
The concern in London was the number of resets with the consequence in time devoured.
Week 1, 13-15 November
France vs South Africa: scrums 17, resets 0, collapses 4, free kicks 2, penalties 1
Wales vs Samoa: scrums 19, resets 8, collapses 12, free kicks 3, penalties 3
England vs Argentina: scrums 18, resets 8, collapses 8, free kicks 3, penalties 1
Italy vs New Zealand: scrums 25, resets 19, collapses 20, free kicks 1, penalties 7
Scotland vs Fiji: scrums 19, resets 8, collapses 4, free kicks 3, penalties 2
Ireland vs Australia: scrums 14, resets 7, collapses 5, free kicks 2, penalties 2
Totals:
Scrums: 112
Resets: 50 – 45%
Collapses: 53 – 47%
Free Kicks: 14 – 12,5%
Penalties: 16 – 14%
Week 2, 21 November
Italy vs South Africa: scrums 13, resets 5, collapses 3, free kicks 1, penalties 3
Scotland vs Australia: scrums 20, resets 2, collapses 8, free kicks 7, penalties 1
England vs New Zealand: scrums 25, resets 3, collapses 8, free kicks 3, penalties 2
France vs Samoa: scrums 20, resets 3, collapses 7, free kicks 2, penalties 2
Ireland vs Fiji: scrums 27, resets 7, collapses 2, free kicks 2, penalties 1
Wales vs Argentina: scrums 17, resets 4, collapses 8, free kicks 4, penalties 3
Totals:
Scrums: 122
Resets: 21 – 17%
Collapses: 36 – 30%
Free Kicks: 19 – 16%
Penalties: 12 – 10%
Whether an accident or not, the second week is much better than the first in terms of resets and collapses. There are more free kicks – not that they matter as play is often quick after them. On the other hand penalties are also down.
Mind you, that Italy-New Zealand match may have produced an aberration. If you take off the numbers for that match you get 36% resets (still more than double Week 2) and 38% collapses (more than in Week 2).
Here are the two matches involving New Zealand:
Italy vs New Zealand: scrums 25, resets 19, collapses 20, free kicks 1, penalties 7
England vs New Zealand: scrums 25, resets 3, collapses 8, free kicks 3, penalties 2
Big difference.
Perhaps the mess of Milan did produce a shake-up for players and match officials. Perhaps.
Then you watch Worcester Warriors playing Bath over the same weekend.
There the scrum stats:
Scrums: 19
Resets: 17 – 89%
Collapses: 17 – 89%
Free kicks: 3 – 16%
Penalties: 5 – 26%
That is terrible. These are worse than the Italy vs New Zealand figures. Maybe it’s another aberration – or maybe the message has not got to the role-players at club level.
