We're props: Stop feeding us!

The scrum: Obsolete?

I would like to paint a picture for you. A day in the life of a prop. We sweat, we bleed, we toil for the sake of winning the ball. It's one of our primary functions.

In an article I wrote a while ago, I was worried about the scrums and what they were becoming in the world of ELVs and heightened professionalism.

I was worried that the new touch and engage rule, among others, would cost us the combative nature of the scrums.

Whilst I still believe it has done a little damage (although not as much as I originally thought), something else a little more sinister has taken its place: feeding. It's one of the most depressing sights for a front row that is giving its all in a scrum to get the inches required that would give the hooker a chance to strike against the head, watching the ball sail like a magnet towards the opposition number eight's feet.

Before we know it the ball has gone and another draining run across the pitch beckons, usually towards another scrum which we have no chance of winning.

It's not necessarily the fact that it happens, we front rows know a thing or two about things happening that no one sees.... it's the fact that its so blatant and so constant.

To use a biblical reference I would like to quote Laws chapter 20.6 verse D - 'The scrum half must throw in the ball straight along the middle line, so that it first touches the ground immediately beyond the width of the nearer prop's shoulders.' (if you would like to see it yourself go to the laws section at www.irb.com.)

Now come on.... really? Next time you watch a game whether it be Guinness Premiership, Super 14, Magners League, even your local grunts take on some students in Somerset's 4th team merit table, look at the scrums and count the number of times that the ball goes in straight. I will be staggered if you have to move onto your second hand.

So what is the point of having scrums? Look at what they are given for, knock ons, forward passes, not using the ball or not recycling it quick enough, they're almost mini free-kicks for little mistakes.

But with scrums there should be a combative nature that lets the team that made the mistake in the first place get the ball back to make up for this little transgression.

The problem is with this crooked feeding is that there is no combat, no contest. So why have scrums in the first place? If there is no chance of getting the ball back you might as well give free-kicks for knock ons and such, but surely that's a bit like trying to kill an annoying fly with a shotgun - a bit of overkill. There has to be this contest, otherwise we should do away with us big guns up front and go and play rugby league.

I still can't understand why this has not been addressed by referees and lawmakers alike. When all the furore about the breakdowns came in a while ago there were forums, discussions, ELVs, directives etc. So why not this crooked feed business? It's easier to spot; Brian Moore declared war on it a while back and now a game won't go by that he commentates on in which he doesn't mention it.

The tone in his viewpoint however has changed. When it first came to his attention he seemed genuinely angry about the situation. Now it seems that he is laughing when commenting on it. So does that mean the people making the laws and refereeing the game have changed to this almost farcical way of looking at it?

Have they got to a point where it has been going on for so long that it has now become a grudging tradition that they can't stop for fear of letting it go?

I'm sure everyone will recall the 2002 Heineken Cup Final between Leicester and Munster when Neil Back grabbed the ball out of Peter Stringer's hands and placed it carefully into the safety of the Leicester scrum. I hated him for that. I could not for the life of me fathom why a player of his incredible quality and seemingly good nature could cheat so blatantly like that.

But you know, now I'm starting to see a point. The only way of having a chance to win a scrum against the head is to do something along those lines. Now I know people will be baying for my blood for saying that, but you know what, watching that kind of thing happen occasionally isn't as bad as seeing the ball every week placed into the feet of second rows.

I like to see a bit of fight in a front row. I like the fight when I play in the front row. It gives me greater satisfaction when I have protected my ball to know that I have done my job properly, and if I help win one against the head, it feels that much sweeter.

So what can be done about this? It's simple. Referees, doing something about it! I know you guys are under an awful lot of pressure at the moment what with the coaches raging about everything under the sun and blaming you for them having spilled their coffee on the journey to the ground that morning, but you know what, this one is actually pretty easy to pick up on.

You make the mark and the line for heaven's sake. Even linesmen could do it for you if they are close enough and especially given that they have been renamed Referee's Assistants.

I fear that if you don't, the IRB will get rid of scrums altogether and simply use tap restarts and it will be the end of civilisation as we know it.

Bryn Stephens plays at tighthead in the Somerset 4th team merit table