Penalizing a prop for being popped is like a penalizing a flyhalf for missing touch says Tank Lanning in his Sport24 column this week, who deems scrum penalties to be the scourge of modern day rugby.
Imagine a flyhalf being penalized by a referee for missing touch! Or how about a wing or centre being yellow carded for coming off his defensive line and missing a tackle?
Oh jeez, what has the fat man been smoking this week, I hear you ask. That would be bloody preposterous, I hear you say.
Preposterous, abominable, ludicrous … Call it what you will, and you would be right. Yet every single week we see the former, and at least once a month we see the latter.
In fact, in the Crusaders vs Lions game, we saw both happen at the same time! Poor old Julian Redelinghuys was popped like the proverbial champagne cork by a rampaging Wyatt Crockett, and instead of being left alone to hide in a team huddle while pondering every tighthead prop’s worst nightmare, referee Nick Briant yellow carded him and penalized the Lions!
Penalized and yellow carded for having a poor scrum? How is that different to carding a centre for missing a tackle or penalizing a flyhalf for missing touch?
Preposterous indeed …
Throw in the fact that every single tighthead prop on earth would rather scrum naked (think about where the lock would have to bind) than suffer the embarrassment of being popped, and I can guarantee you that it was not done intentionally. Yet still the penalty and yellow card.
If anything, especially given the joy that all loosehead props take from popping their opposite number, it should probably have been Crockett who was pinged for scrumming up. Not that I believe that to be the correct call either, though.
Just think about the simple physics. Two 350 kg front rows come together at the shoulder, with their hips at 90 degree angles. Behind them are a 220 kg lock pairing whose post match beers from the front row depend on them not going backwards, ever. On either side of the front row is a 100 kg flank who won’t get lifted in the lineout unless he makes an effort in the scrum. And as a backstop, you have another 110 kg Duane Vermeulen type freak who has dug his heels in.
Where exactly do you expect a prop to go if one of them gets the angle of the hit just slightly wrong? Or if you are simply not strong enough or good enough to handle superior opposition? You don’t have to be Albert Einstein to see that it has to be either up or down.
Deciding which of the six people making up that front row battle (yes, hookers do influence it as well) caused the scrum to go up or down, given that it is accidental in most cases, borders on the impossible. So if forced to make a call, one has to guess.
Yet because it is happening a little too often for the IRB’s liking, referees are being pushed to eradicate it via the use of the whistle. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight!
So they empower the referees with some serious firepower like a penalty and yellow card, and allow them to employ said firepower based on guesswork.
Result influencing decisions based on one man’s interpretation of what might have been completely accidental? Being punished for having a bad day at the office? It’s no wonder scrum coaches round the world are encouraging sneaky tricks to try and milk the penalty.
Like the breakdown, the scrum is a proper problem area in the game right now. But one gets the feeling that the powers that be are treating the symptoms of a disease instead of looking to cure the cause.
Fantastic read. Should we not eliminate the scrum all together, and maybe have a free kick instead? I know it would deprive the prop-types of much needed exercise.
There is the use of the word ‘intention’, in the laws covering scrum collapse and the likes. This is not considered by most of the inexperienced, ill informed, and suspect refs we see today.
I reffed 20 years ago, when a ref had to apply the new laws on ‘collapsing’. Having played hooker before these laws came into being, I had gained the knowledge of prop prowess, and the nuances of said players. Prop prowess!! Yes.
This helped me enormously in applying the law, and managing the scrums. I put the onus mostly on the tight-head to keep the scrum up, but also didn’t believe that most collapses were intentional. These laws came into being to protect players in the front row, and therefore when a hooker or prop, pops out of a scrum, he often is doing it to save his neck. Why be punished for that? This law, with a penalty as punishment, is not categorical, and hence should be redressed by the IRB law officials. IMO, all penalties must be categorical……i.e. no guessing by the ref.
Nice one. My golden rule is the loosehead keeps it up, while the tighthead keeps it straight. But yes, a cheeky No3 can definitely pull it down if in trouble …