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Scrum Watch

By Paul Dobson
Saturday 7 Mar 2015

This is a bit late this week, which is a pity as there was some promising scumming last weekend which suggests that the scrum in rugby union football may survive after all.

Just look at the match in Perth between the Force and the Hurricanes. Compare it with the match in Dunedin between the Highlanders and the Reds to realise how much better the Perth match was, and the Dunedin match was played under a closed roof. The Hurricanes' scrum worked especially well – eight scrums, no collapses, one reset and seven natural completions.

Of the Six Nations matches the Ireland vs England match had the most satisfactory scrumming, though the France-Wales match did remarkably well considering a surface that was ridiculously poor for a match of this class..

Six Nations

Scotland vs Italy: 12 scrums, 10 collapses, 8 resets, 8 penalties, 2 free kick, 2 natural completions

France vs Wales: 14 scrumns, 7 collapses, 8 resets, 2 penalties, 1 free kick, 5 natural completions

Ireland vs England: 11 scrumns, 4 collapses, 2 resets, 2 penalties, 3 free kick, 4 natural completions

Total: 37 scrums, 21 collpases, 18 resets, 12 penalties, 6 free kicks abd 11 natural completeions where the ball went in and came out without anything else happening.

Average per match: 12,3 scrums, 7 collpases, 6 resets, 4 penalties, 2 free kicks, 3,7 natural completions

Super Rugby

Highlanderds vs Reds: 17 scrumns, 12 collapses, 9 resets, 3 penalties, 3 free kicks, 4 natural completions

Force vs Hurricanes: 16 scrumns, 2 collapses, 4 resets, 1 penalty, 1 free kick, 10 natural completions

Cheetahs vs Blues: 11 scrumns, 8 collapses, 7 resets, 3 penalties, 1 free kick, 1 natural completions

Cheifs vs Crusaders: 8 scrumns, 3 collapses, 1 reset, 2 penalties, 0 free kicks, 3 natural completions

Rebels vs Brumbies: 19 scrumns, 9 collapses, 8 resets, 6 penalties, 1 free kick, 4 natural completions

Bulls vs Sharks: 3 scrumns, 2 collapses, 2 resets, 1 penalty, 1 free kick, 0 natural completions

Lions vs Stormers: 16 scrumns, 10 collapses, 6 resets, 6 penalties, 4 free kicks, 4 natural completions

Total: 90 scrums, 46 collapses, 37 resets, 22 penalties, 11 free kicks, 26 natural completions

Average per match: 12,8 scrums, 6,6 collpases, 5,3 resets, 3,1 penalties, 1,6 free kicks, 3,7 natural completions

There is not much difference between the scrums of the two competitions, but the stats do not tell you that this is not a desirable situation. What they do not tell you is how much time is wasted on messy scrums. One scrum early in the Highlanders match took 3 minutes 36 seconds to complete, nearly 5% of the 80 minutes of a match. Only one scrum in the Force match took more than a minute – 1 minute 11 seconds.

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