Law Discussion: The Falling Scrum
At Murrayfield on Saturday in the rain the Scottish crowd repeatedly booed the mighty New Zealanders for dropping the scrums, seemingly with impunity. The falling scrum is a problem in rugby.
For a long time the Australians have been blamed for this, going back to the cunning of Bill Young. Now Paul Ackford is having a go at Al Baxter, who is better at posturing than pushing. But are the Wallabies the worst?
They have been blaming New Zealand but there is no doubt whom the Scots blamed.
Statistics are not everything but they do give us some facts to go on.
Look at Murrayfield first. There were 19 scrums. They produced 18 collapses, 17 resets, 2 penalties and 2 free kicks.
That does not make for an entertaining afternoon in the Scottish wet. Only one single Scottish scrum out of 12 went without collapse or reset. One out of 12.
That was the worst of the weekend.
The other matches produced the following statistics.
Wales vs South Africa: 18 scrums, 5 collapses, 6 resets, 3 free kicks, 1 penalty.
Resets: 33%
Italy vs Australia: 14 scrums, 5 collapses, 7 resets, 1 free kick, 3 penalties
Resets: 50%
France vs Argentina: 18 scrums, 5 collapses, 7 resets, 2 free kicks, 1 penalty
Resets: 38%
Ireland vs Canada: 22 scrums, 6 collapses, 8 resets, 4 free kicks, 1 penalty
Resets: 36%
England vs Pacific Islands: 14 scrums, 7 collapses, 6 resets, 2 free kicks, 3 penalties
Resets: 43%
Scotland vs New Zealand: 19 scrums, 18 collapses, 17 resets, 2 free kicks, 2 penalties.
Resets: 89%
89%! That is a disgrace. You did not have to be Scottish to boo that.
Over all there were 105 scrums in the six matches with 52 resets. 52 wastes of time!
Why should it happen?
Weather? One pack too weak? Over-regulation? Player cunning? Zest for the contest?
The weather was bad in all but Cardiff and Padua. Murrayfield did not look worse than Thomond Park where the resets were 36% – 53% fewer.
The biggest disparity between the scrumming power was also at Thomond Park where the Canadians battled to survive. Again the reset problem was much, much smaller.
Over-regulation is a possibility. Watch the scrums of 20 or so years ago. No crouch-touch-pause-engage. The players went down when they felt like it. The ball came in straight and the scrums stayed up.
Does over-regulation make the moment of hit too important? In olden times, the teams hit in and settled down and the ball came in. Then they battled for the ball. Now it’s supposed to be hit and ball in. The contest is no longer after the ball comes in but when the hit happens.
This contest is fierce at the first scrum of the match and naturally five metres from the opposition line.
The first scrums of the match collapsed when Scotland played New Zealand, Italy played Australia, Ireland played Canada and England played Pacific Islands.
Scotland had four scrums five metres from the New Zealand line. Those 4 scrums produced 9 collapses, 6 resets. No wonder there were people booing.
The regulations have brought in the four-word call – crouch-tourch-pause-engage. New Zealand has done without pause. Maybe that was where their problems started. Maybe it was the way it was said. In Murrayfield pausehengage became one word – a drawn-out, sing-song word that just was not a command. The referees who were more definite had fewer troubles.
In Italy the Italian scrumhalf was told: “Your job is to put the ball in. Put the ball in.”
The job is easier if the referee is not in the way and if the scrum is stationary. If the referee is hovering over the tunnel the only channel available to the scrumhalf will not work!
In Limerick the referee stood to the side of the scrum, leaning forward to see the tunnel and he gave his command, enabling him to see the straightness of the feed and the scrumhalf the space to feed the scrum immediately. That seemed to work. He also gave a free kick for a scrum feed. There were also such free kicks in Cardiff and Marseilles.
On the matter of talking, it was strange in Padua, that the referee spoke almost exclusively to the Italian front row. It happens to be one of the best front rows in the world with Carlos Nieto, Leonardo Ghiraldini, and Salvatore Perugini. One would have thought that they would need less talking to than the Wallabies. Talking to one front row like that is an open invitation to the other front row to go for broke. Both Nieto and Perugini were penalised but not flexible Matt Dunning.
The IRB has sent out directives about the tackle and feeding the scrum but it seems that the scrum itself requires serious attention if the blight of resets is to be removed.
