Take away the scrum, and we are left with rugby league, says TANK LANNING, who casts an expert eye over the proposed tweaks to the dark art of the game.
Tank Lanning
It does not seem that long ago that under the guidance of the late legendary Maties coach Ian Kirkpatrick, both Toks van der Linde and I were demonstrating the old fashioned scrum “fold in” to anyone who would listen in the famous club’s VIP pub sunk deep into the Coetzenberg grandstand.
It was either 2010 or 2011, and it had been a long night on the amber liquid after a particularly hot stint in the commentary box for a February Varsity Cup game – so hot in fact, that my old mate Toks called the game in his undies – a sight no human could ever forget, but also fired into my memory bank given that the stodgy SuperSport crew took extreme umbrage to me Tweeting a pic of the big man in said banana hammock!
But I digress! “Kirky”, who got 13 Test caps for the Boks between 1953 and 1961, had had enough of all the collapsed scrums we saw that night, and was calling for a return of the scrum “fold in” seen in his day, using the then willing Toks (back in his shirt and tie) and I to demonstrate.
Well, it seems Kirkpatrick may have been ahead of his time. That is if any of the series of new laws set to be trialled across a number of competitions in 2016, come into being. Six points for a try, two refs on the field, and moving the offside line a metre back are some of the suggested tweaks, but those I will leave for another column.
Today, as a Christmas extravagance, a look at the just the proposed scrum tweaks:
Scrum feed: The scrum-half feeding the scrum must put the ball in straight, but can align his outside shoulder with the middle line of the scrum, leaving him a shoulder width towards his own side.
This seems an acceptable compromise. Those bloody skew feeds leave me apoplectic with rage as it negates the contest completely, something that simply has to remain in the game. Policed correctly (ahh, yes referee interpretation), this will require the attacking side to either strike or aim for some forward movement of the entire pack on the feed.
Scrum formation: The ‘crouch’ will now see both front rows lean in and go shoulder to shoulder with their opponents. On ‘bind’, the props position their arms in the correct position as per the current laws. Upon the referee being happy with the stability, the hooker will be allowed to give his scrum-half a signal that he is ready for the feed.
So the hit disappears completely, and in its place comes Kirky’s old fashioned fold in. Given that most resets come as a result of even the hugely dilute modern day hit, this has to be worth giving a go. Take a gander at even the 1995 scrums and see how quickly the scrums were completed. I like the fact that the hooker still gets to signal the feed. It is vital that the attacking side retain some sort of advantage, and this, together with new the scrumhalf positioning, is it.
Scrum wheel: If a scrum is deemed to have been wheeled, the referee sets a new scrum at the place where the previous scrum ended, with team who previously fed the scrum doing so again.
Brilliant – no more guessing from the referee on this. As long as it’s only if it goes through the ninety degree mark. A cheeky wheel MUST remain a part of the game – the attacking side normally going for the right shoulder to get their opensider away, and the defensive team trying to do the exact opposite. It requires exquisite skill from not only the 3 baobab trees up front, but the entire pack.
Front row subs: If a team cannot provide enough specialist front row forwards – due to injuries or a card – the match continues with uncontested scrums, with that team playing with 14 men. Each team must have 8 players in the scrum, though, leaving that team 1 player short in the backline.
Brilliant. I never thought I would say that about granny scrums – something one never wants to see in rugby, ever – but rather these then teams trying to manipulate the rules when they have a weak scrum. By all means, sub your weak props as much as you want (and we all know this is something that gets manipulated), but now you do it at the risk of losing a backline player, something much tougher to cover when suffering a 14 vs 15 man period.
All in all, I think these might work. Nothing on scrumming in or collapsing, though, perhaps the two biggest scourges of the scrum. But one has to presume that World Rugby are hoping that the fold in will take care of these.
With scrums having dropped from 23 to 13 per game since 1995, some might argue against the impact of the scrum, but it remains not only a key physical contest that has a direct bearing on the game, but also hugely impactful on the general psyche of a side. Hells Bells, even little wings sprint across to pat the props on the bum when they do good these days!
Take it away, and we are left with rugby league, and that is just too traumatic to ponder!
