Could someone who knows what, precisely, is going on within a scrum please inform us of the rules because from my viewpoint there do not appear to be any. I don’t think even the most gifted of referees know how or when to award penalties for scrum infringements. In my mind, the scrum is one aspect of the game of rugby that requires a serious overhaul in terms of the way in which they proceed within a game. However, this has not stopped the knobs at the top within the IRB from doing their utmost to make the scrum a matter of serious contention these days.
What happened to the days when okes like Sean Fitzpatrick and the ‘Bullet’ Dalton would rock up at the mark of the scrum and next thing you know they had engaged and the engine room would then be pumping over time? The set piece known as the scrum, would be over in a matter of seconds and if for some reason the scrum went down it would be reset. Nowadays, a barrage of tedious rules (all of which are grey areas in themselves) play on the minds of the big men up front. As the engagement occurs each prop from each team is watched like a hawk by the officiating referee, which I cannot understand because he too has no clue what will happen next. Essentially, the crux of the matter is that scrums are one massive cock up, and the scrum is, in fact, ruining the flow of rugby matches these days. My question is why.
Well, the IRB have insisted on safety and fair scrummaging and both of these factors have led to the introduction of the well known phrase, that us as regular rugby viewers have become all far to familiar with, “Touch, Pause…Engage!” (Or, “Toech, Poes…Engage! If you are Jaco Peyper). The introduction of this rule at scrum time, in the eyes of the IRB, has allowed front rows to be more parallel at impact (allowing greater safety) and also allowed for a far fairer contest up front. But in my mind this is all a waste of time and this regulation should be put out to pasture. Not only does this rule often lead to early engagement infringements, which results in a free kick or even a penalty, but it also chews up large quantities of time during the match itself. Some games these days are registering up to 10 minutes total during the game wasted between reset scrums due poor engagement rules or miss timing between front rows. The whole thing is a farce! In my mind the game should spend as little time doing the boring stuff, like scrumming, and let the boys in the backline play some real rugby; rugby that has flow and entertainment value to it! Rugby like the match seen at Twickenham two weeks ago between the Sharks and Crusaders! That’s entertainment. Watching some unathlectic fat boys pack down repeatedly over the space of 5 minutes makes me rather want to watch bowls then rugby. The IRB need to reevaluate the scrum.
But wait, just as you thought I was done ranting there is more… What about the rules beyond a successful engagement. There don’t appear to be any. Referees just appear to alternate the free kick count between each team on the field like giving sweets to a child, “One for you, and one for you…. Oh, oh and one for you too!” Its ridiculous, the only rule with any consistency to it is the breaking of ones bind, and even that is not picked up on one hundred percent of the time. The rules are a joke and we need more consistency here. Stuff safety, these okes have decided to play this game and are aware of the dangers it presents and as such they do the necessary body training to prevent against disasters. So in my mind we should just go back to the good old days of engaging at a whim and let the game go on even if the scrum does have an infringement or two going on within it!
What happened to the days when okes like Sean Fitzpatrick and the ‘Bullet’ Dalton would rock up at the mark of the scrum and next thing you know they had engaged and the engine room would then be pumping over time? The set piece known as the scrum, would be over in a matter of seconds and if for some reason the scrum went down it would be reset. Nowadays, a barrage of tedious rules (all of which are grey areas in themselves) play on the minds of the big men up front. As the engagement occurs each prop from each team is watched like a hawk by the officiating referee, which I cannot understand because he too has no clue what will happen next. Essentially, the crux of the matter is that scrums are one massive cock up, and the scrum is, in fact, ruining the flow of rugby matches these days. My question is why.
Well, the IRB have insisted on safety and fair scrummaging and both of these factors have led to the introduction of the well known phrase, that us as regular rugby viewers have become all far to familiar with, “Touch, Pause…Engage!” (Or, “Toech, Poes…Engage! If you are Jaco Peyper). The introduction of this rule at scrum time, in the eyes of the IRB, has allowed front rows to be more parallel at impact (allowing greater safety) and also allowed for a far fairer contest up front. But in my mind this is all a waste of time and this regulation should be put out to pasture. Not only does this rule often lead to early engagement infringements, which results in a free kick or even a penalty, but it also chews up large quantities of time during the match itself. Some games these days are registering up to 10 minutes total during the game wasted between reset scrums due poor engagement rules or miss timing between front rows. The whole thing is a farce! In my mind the game should spend as little time doing the boring stuff, like scrumming, and let the boys in the backline play some real rugby; rugby that has flow and entertainment value to it! Rugby like the match seen at Twickenham two weeks ago between the Sharks and Crusaders! That’s entertainment. Watching some unathlectic fat boys pack down repeatedly over the space of 5 minutes makes me rather want to watch bowls then rugby. The IRB need to reevaluate the scrum.
But wait, just as you thought I was done ranting there is more… What about the rules beyond a successful engagement. There don’t appear to be any. Referees just appear to alternate the free kick count between each team on the field like giving sweets to a child, “One for you, and one for you…. Oh, oh and one for you too!” Its ridiculous, the only rule with any consistency to it is the breaking of ones bind, and even that is not picked up on one hundred percent of the time. The rules are a joke and we need more consistency here. Stuff safety, these okes have decided to play this game and are aware of the dangers it presents and as such they do the necessary body training to prevent against disasters. So in my mind we should just go back to the good old days of engaging at a whim and let the game go on even if the scrum does have an infringement or two going on within it!
The scrum is without a doubt the area that needs the most attention in the rulebook. Year after year we see Northern Hemisphere refs blowing the shit out of the Southern touring countries because as with other areas of the game, the interpretation between North and South is completely different. Lets not even get started on the scrum in Super Rugby - so many games spoilt this year because of reset scrums. My, and what a pleasure when the scrums do in fact work well. Even the Crusaders - Sharks game was marred with a bit of crap concerning the scrum, partly due to John Smit being demolished but it was likely that the ref was just looking for someone to penalise. I say a drastic rethink is required - but perhaps not going back to the stone age as suggested above, whats all this old school "back in my day they made real men" vibe going down here... The IRB is an international organization - lets see them come to the party here.
ReplyDeleteThis Article gets an 8 and a half, BUT the blog gets a 10.
ReplyDelete40-45
ReplyDeleteI wood agree..
ReplyDelete