Refereeing the scrum
This is perhaps the hardest job a referee has, but we have some advice from Balie Swart, a World Cup winner in 1995 as a player and in 2007 as a coach of the forwards, in his playing days a prop.
Swart recently ran sessions on the scrum for the National Panel of South African referees and the Provincial Panel. It must be one of the best sessions at the annual referees course for many decades, certainly since 1974!
One would not expect scrums to be hard to referee, especially at the top – top players with top referees, well-organised rugby at a well-organised set piece. And yet it is, because it is the set piece where players seek, sometimes by devious means, to exercise dominance over their opponents, man on man and unit on unit, which means that some strive to avoid being dominated and may use devious means to do so.
Because it is an area of heavy conflict where two units, each well over 800 kg, come into close, physical contact it is a danger area. For that reason the scrum has been increasingly subject to regulations. As Swart said: “It is a tough environment.”
It can also be tedious. In the opening weekend off Super 14 in 2009, there were 28 scrums when the Crusaders played the Chiefs. Those scrums collapsed 18 times and were reset 11 times. There were also five free kicks and two penalties. That does not leave much for normal scrums to happen,. When the Hurricanes played the Chiefs there were 17 scrums with 12 collapses, seven resets, two free kicks and a penalty. That sort of statistic suggests that scrums are a waste of time, which is not the case for they are an integral part of rugby and help to make the game a game for all shapes and sizes. But here we have top players with top referees making a mess.
Referees try to see that the scrum happens legally and as a fair contest. Often when they act they are criticised. Commentators and coaches criticise them when it goes against their side and the penalised prop will go off shaking a sorrowful head. But Swart warned: “Coaches don’t always know what’s going on. In fact props don’t always know.”
Then he had some advice for referees:
“The way you talk to players is important. Don’t approach them as if you know everything but give your commands clearly. Sometimes players say to the referee: ‘I can’t hear you.’ But the referee mist speak – speak in the change room and speak on the field and do so clearly. Be humble when you talk to the players but confident.
“When you talk to the players, the most important player is the hooker. He is the captain of the scrum. He makes the decision which way his side is going to scrum. The hooker’s first job in the team is to scrum and he is also the player most likely to take a scrum down. But at the scrum the referee is the boss. He wants to see the hooker’s chin up and pointing straight ahead. The direction of a player’s head will determine which way the scrum is going to go, where the pressure will go and once the back five hit in that pressure is frightening. They move on the command pause. That is the command teams use to tighten their bind which already produces forward pressure.
“It starts when you go in the dressing room before the match. Get the whole front row and tell the hooker: ‘I’m going to talk to you and only you.’ It may happen that the captain is in the front row and would rather that you spoke to him. That’s fine. But talk to one man only.
“In the change room tell the players that you are interested mostly in their safety. You are a safety officer. If they scrum legally they are more likely to be safe. The scrum will be safe if the front rows are safe and in control.
“Try to use the players language. Tell them you want the hooker to take the mark. Tell them that they are to have spines in line, chins up and head pointing straight forward. Tell them that you want the binding up, props’ shoulders open, feet, hips and shoulders square.
“Tell them how you will call the engage – crouch, touch, pause, engage. After the crouch there must be no movement of feet.
“The referee can pull out after crouch to get things right, but once he calls ‘touch, pause’, he must go ahead with engage. By then the players are primed and ready to fire. After pause the referee must keep going even if he sees a problem.
“Ask the front row in the changing room to show you how they bind, and you can see if it is right.”
He then spoke about being on the field, in the pressurised action.
“Don’t take away the contest at the scrums. Get them properly set and when the ball comes in they can go for it – legally but with all their might. After the ball is in, ignore the movement.
“When you set the scrum, give the mark clearly and say: ‘There’s the mark.’
“At the same time make sure it’s a fair contest. Don’t let a hooker take up space. He will want to because the sooner the hooker gets over the mark the less his team has to scrum. So get them a fair distance from the mark and the two sets of front rows at the same level. Then see that the defending hooker does not take a step to his right. He wants to close the opposition’s space and direct pressure onto the loosehead.”
Swart explained how it can be useful to put a hand on each prop’s back when the two packs engage because them you easily feel which way the pressure is going.
On engagement, too, watch the feet and check the binding. If a front row is on its heels, they are liable to be pushed back. If the tighthead binds on the loosehead’s inside or on his arm, there could be trouble. If the loosehead does not bind, the tighthead has nothing to bind onto.
“Before engagement you want 16 pairs of feet on the floor and then in the engagement feet are not to move. If you see foot movement before engagement, you are seeing danger and must act. Watch for the hooker who drops his shoulders or twists his shoulders. The hooker’s whose ball it is will want to be as high as possible. The other hooker will want to take him down. If the hooker whose ball it is feels he is in a bad position he will rather collapse the scrum than go ahead. Watch where the hooker binds on his prop.
“When the scrum is set, step back and the ball must go in immediately. Have the scrumhalf ready on your left side with the ball before you engage.”
Other points:
a. If the scrum disintegrates, don’t penalise the pack that stays together.
b. If a team scrums through the other scrum, let it go. It is different if a loosehead pushes a tighthead back.
c. If a team wheels after the ball is in, let them have a go.
d. The loosehead with his hand on the ground has an unfair advantage./ “You will see that he never has hand on the ground on his own ball.”
e. Teams that lose the hit may well collapse the scrum
At the end of this session which was practical with referees doing the scrumming and refereeing those scrums, Swart said to the referees: “You have made a choice of what you want to do. It’s your passion. So have a full go.”
