IS THIS THE ANSWER TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS?

A close look at the New Scrum Laws being trialled.

Throughout the summer months – British &Irish Lions, Wimbledon, the Ashes, Open Golf, Moscow Athletics – we have waited with baited breath for the high profile debut of “crouch-bind-set,”  the solution to Rugby Union’s scrum problems. It duly arrived on August 17th in the shape of Australia v New Zealand followed by South Africa v Argentina, the opening games in the Southern Hemisphere’s ‘Rugby Championship.’ And what do you think happened at the very first scrums? In the former there was a collapse resulting in a free-kick for engaging too early, in the latter another collapse began proceedings and that too produced a free-kick. Talk about “this is where we came in.”

But, and it would be premature to write off this global trial “aimed at enhancing player welfare by reducing impact on engagement,” it is worth having a closer look at the small print which sets out to explain the theory behind the amendments. To remind you of the state we had reached, take note of the following: many early engagements, teams want to win the “hit”/ball coming into the scrum at the same time as the “hit” (there is no such term as “hit” in Law 20!), continuing to push on engagement, scrum not square and stationary and our old favourite, ball not straight into scrums. So to the remedies: the scrum must be square, stable and parallel to the touchline, no pushing before the ball comes in, head and shoulders above hips and no binding on the elbow.

On the referee’s call props will be expected to crouch, then bind using their outside arm after he has called “bind,” which will be maintained until the referee calls set; referees have been instructed to tell the no.9 when to put the ball in, “yes 9.” I think this one could be very interesting because individual judgement on timings vary from one referee to another every week. According to the script the equally crucial management of the procedure between bind and set requires the referee to check that the front rows are stable, at the right height and the shoulders square not hidden.

For the binding to be acceptable, before the ‘set’ the tight head must at least bind on the armpit with NO downward motion on the loose head who needs to present square shoulders and square hips; in the front rows the weight has to be on at least one foot in a position to make a forward shove. The sanctions for the range of misdemeanours at the scrum have not changed: early engagement, early pushing, ball not put in straight = free kick; pushing at an illegal angle, collapsing or standing up = free kick; repeated infringements = penalty kick and possibly yellow card.

There has been plenty to read in the Rugby columns through the close season on where this will all end up, ranging from Exeter coach Rob Baxter’s regret that there has been unnecessary meddling to Ed Morrison (Head of Premiership Referees) quite naturally announcing that his troops are well prepared and determined to make it work. We shall see. By the time you read this the ‘Rugby Championship’ will not be the only matches you may have watched either live or on television but you can bet that at the different levels neither will the feedback be the same.

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There have been alterations to the Television Match Official protocol for the coming season, most notably that every Premiership fixture will now have a TMO, whether the match is being televised or not. Progress on this and the minor experimental Law changes introduced worldwide last season will be reported on in the weeks ahead in this column.  

David Matthews