Fewer collapsed scrums? Yes please!
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with an interesting new scrum initiative and the multiple Super Rugby and Six Nations talking points...
The latest in a line of scrum engagement trials is set to start this week in the Pacific Rugby Cup, which features select teams from the Pacific Islands touring the second-strings of the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby franchises before playing off against each other.
The trial involves the props binding with their outside arms upon the 'touch' call in the engagement sequence.
A good thing? It's definitely worth a shot. Binding is phenomenally difficult these days. A slipped bind costs many a penalty and causes much consternation among the front row fraternity; it's understandable for props to feel aggrieved that they may have cost their team three points merely by dint of being unable to grab a handful of skintight shiny bog-roll jersey while close to two tonnes of force are colliding across their spines.
What is also apparent with the new trial is that 'getting a hit' is going to be a lot harder, as the props will have to stay closer together once they have bound up, so the force of being able to step forward as scrums do nowadays will be negated.
This is going to divide opinion. Some see the hit as an indispensable part of the game, while others see it as too hard to control to be worth the time wasted officiating it. But take away the hit and you will get back to a more 'pure' form of scrummaging in which the technical ability to be able to push and opponent off will count for more.
The discussion forum is open. But if it reduces any or all of the collapses at engagement and number of free-kicks/penalties at engagement, then it is probably a good thing.
And if it makes it easier for referees to pay more attention to and control the curse of feeding, then it is definitely a good thing!
This year's Six Nations is one of the most fascinating we have had for a long, long time. There is too much to talk about to fit into the one column, but these have been the points bandied around the terraces, offices and bars we've been in this weekend:
Scotland's revival looks the real deal. Ok, they're not going to be contenders for a Rugby World Cup anytime soon, but there was a time when they looked as though they might end up perennial whipping boys. The forwards continue to work hard, while the backs have a sharpness to their play long absent from Murrayfield. Welcome back!
Ireland are officially in transition. Injuries have scalped them at every turn this season, but the generation below clearly needs significantly more time together to bed in to the international stage. Declan Kidney has to now consider giving it to them. A clearout of the aged and half-crocked was never so overdue, while the two and a half years between now and the next Rugby World Cup is enough time to sort out the men from the boys of the next generation, even if that will mean Ireland taking a few blows on the way.
France are in terrible trouble. Philippe Saint-André's curious tinkering has set the team well back from where it should be right now with the talent they have at their disposal. He may get the time to put it right, he may not - a lot might depend on how the French do against an ailing Ireland - but the team looks short on ideas, direction and most disturbingly, identity.
Finally, Wales and England are both heading in the right direction for a mesmerising final-day showdown. Assuming they beat Scotland and Italy respectively, it's tough to know what would be sweeter for the Welsh: winning the Six Nations title or denying England a Grand Slam in Cardiff.
But after the false start against Ireland, Wales have settled down and are playing good rugby again. Shaun Edwards has clearly taken the defence to task, resulting in an improvement in line speed and tackling, while the backs are starting to find their ideas and lines.
They will be a tougher challenge to England than anybody thus far, and those celebrating England's win against the French should not forget that they got out of jail. Dominated in the scrum and the breakdown for much of the first hour, the game changed on a huge moment of good fortune when the accidental offside leading to Manu Tuilagi's try was not spotted, with that moment backed up by some extraordinary tactical changes from Saint-André.
England can enjoy their time at the top though. They are clearly mastering the art of winning when not playing well, and taking opportunities when they come. They are solid in every department, have a good, young average age and a healthy arrogance in general (although Owen Farrell and Chris Ashton could do with pulling their heads in a bit). They are the team to beat. On to Cardiff...
Probably time to send pictures to Port Elizabeth of myself choking on a mouthful of humble pie then. The Kings were good value for their win over the Force, who looked disparate and unhappy with their lot in life.
Next up for the newbies (after a bye week) are the Sharks, who will presumably provide a significantly more realistic benchmark of where the Kings are than Australia's mildly jet-lagged weakest team.
But once again what really struck home about this weekend's Super Rugby was the cavernous differences in rugby culture that the tournament provides. The New Zealand games, especially the breathless clash between Chiefs and Highlanders, were once again streets ahead of the rest in terms of skill, speed and enterprise. The Stormers-Bulls clash was a tranquilliser of a game, yet also a lesson on how to stick obstinately to structure.
Meanwhile Australia's derbies were marked by a rugged balance between the two: a little more running, but less open running than the Kiwis, less kicking than in SA.
We'll see which prevails. At some point, good though the Kiwis were, you also have to ask if the tackling was as good as it should have been, while the SA franchises will also have to wonder if they ought not just look to see if their runners - and they have some of the finest - ought not to be given a bit more to do.
We'll see over the next few weeks. But as ever, it's good to have Super Rugby back again.
Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson
Comments
porridge_time says...
Farrell more so than Ashton at the moment displays are very immature and unsporting side to his game. Unless Lancaster and Farrell senior have a quiet word with him he will be yellow carded sooner rather than later. I'd also support what another poster has said he maybe in the winning side at the moment, but he is not the best kicker in the tournament or the best number ten.
Regarding the scrum... was very disappointed to see just how much Ireland got away with at scrum time, they could barely keep it up and regularly took it down at will. The final scrum of the game was a prime example of this.
Posted 12:09 26th February 2013
hellovanite says...
ABlack.... hahahaha good on ya mate!
Posted 09:31 26th February 2013
blindmice says...
As a referee you can only referee what happens in front of you and the laws you are adjudicating. I am sure there are plenty of human movement studies around on the scrum that will show just how many stars have to align for a scrum to be set properly in the current age, given factors such as relative strength, speed of engagement, difficulty in binding, angle of engagement etc. the fact that we have so many scrums actually completed is in no small part to the skill of the front row (at the elite level) and is somewhat of a miracle.
In my humble opinion, i have a feeling that removing the intensity of the hit (it wont be removed all together) will ensure less collapses and potentially more completed scrums as with props already loosely bound, it will mean that they have a much straighter angle/equal level at each other. but that will then depend on how the front row adapt to changes in strategy at scrum time and whether we just see collapse penalties replaced with penalties for dropping that bind on the engagement, not pushing straight, boring in, pushing early etc and of course everyone's pet hate, how the IRB directs referees to police the 45 deg feed under the locks feet.......
Posted 08:44 26th February 2013
Trinats2 says...
ABlack:
Turn it up. The statement was about this week. We all know Abs are the best rugby nation over the years. Have a look (very hard for a kiwi, but with both eyes!!!) at the cheats v highlanders game this week. There was only one player, h,landers first try, that had a hand laid on them while scoring a try. The rest never even got close.
Now look at other games where there were multiple TMO involved, due to great attacking, but also due to good defence.
Another thing to question is the referee, stats say with a kiwi ref there are more meats pies in a game. And guess what, if you have a kiwi ref, ABs can't be playing ! On the flip side, Saffas love kiwis and their refs let ABs away with everything !!!
Hope there is a kiwi ref for the Reds v Hurricanes !!!
Posted 08:42 26th February 2013
KingShark says...
Poor article.
SA teams may have scored 32 tries less than NZ teams last year but three of ours teams made the playoffs. You may think throwing the ball around is entertaining but I reckon it is much better to see my team in action an extra week.
Incidentally three teams had near identical tries for and against stats last year: Chiefs (47-30), Crusaders (47-34) and Sharks (47-31). They were eclipsed by the Bulls (50-38) and Hurricanes (58-39) for tries scored and by the Stormers (28-21) for tries against, with the Highlanders (36-31) and Brumbies (41-31) managing to retain respectability for their defense.
Al this means is that you are trying to create a stereotype where there isn't one.
Posted 07:15 26th February 2013
Stellenbosched2 says...
Hi Jay Starr,
Fantastic post, thanks for making those points. I don't know whether the rugby media will listen to your voice of reason. It seems to me that either those in the media are envious of SA rugby and want to take a dig wherever possible, or they need a whipping boy. Either way they make weak, ignorant fools of themselves.
Posted 04:45 26th February 2013
caltaff says...
Just bind first, no pushing until the ball comes in, like the old days.
The scrum is a shambles wasting time and a giving far too many penalties and free kicks in a seemingly arbitrary manner. The refs are clueless as to who is at fault with the inevitable collapses. Fix it IRB!
Posted 02:13 26th February 2013
caltaff says...
Just bind first, no pushing until the ball comes in, like the old days.
The scrum is a shambles wasting time and a giving far too many penalties and free kicks in a seemingly arbitrary manner. The refs are clueless as to who is at fault with the inevitable collapses. Fix it IRB!
Posted 01:52 26th February 2013
ben7 says...
@JayStarr
Planetrugby hate SA. Any opportunity to say something negative about them and they will. I also like how they are comparing the best NZ performance against the worst SA performance..... I agree with you completely, the Sharks and Cheetahs game was a cracker.
Posted 21:47 25th February 2013
jontheref says...
chubblylugs
Take another look, Farrell did put the elbow into the throat, and he took a look to check he connected.
Posted 21:21 25th February 2013
ABlack says...
The comment about NZ super teams skills, speed, enterprise as only good on attack and the defence is questionable, is bullshit. The reason why the defence gets questioned is because some people( usually north of the equator) have never seen rugby skills like those in NZ in person, so they then deduce that the Defence must be crap.
The NZ teams usually have the lowest points scored against them each season in the S15 and the All Blacks have the least amount of tries scored aginst them than any team in history, professional era and since 2004. So which ever way you look at it the NZ teams'D" is the best.
Its just that NZ ATTACK is even BETTER
Posted 20:47 25th February 2013
philipjfry says...
@JayStarr: Well said, cap tipped.
Posted 16:56 25th February 2013
kybone says...
I've been saying for ages that the hit needs to go for the scrum to ever be a proper contest. The IRB can alter the call as much as they want but Its the hit where shoulders become dislodged and players lose their footing. Im not really sure where Farrell has suddenly got this reputation for being massively arrogant from. Yea he was involved in a few handbags at the weekend, but he was blatently tripped by a French player then Huget said something to wind him up about it. He didn't display the most professional behaviour, but then again he's a 21 year old playing in front of 82,000 at Twickenham against France. I think he's showed a tremendous amount of composure up to now, and anyone who has heard him speak will vouch for the fact that he certainly is not arrogant. As for comparing different kicking stats ironmanI441, you can't really. I mean Greig Laidlaw only takes the easy ones. If its over 35m out he leaves it to Stuart Hogg as he did yesterday, and Hogg missed as Laidlaw would have. Farrell takes all the kicks for England, so not a relevant comparison.
Posted 15:02 25th February 2013
chubbylugs says...
the issue with scrums at the top level is the refereeing, not the players. take the england france game on sat. the first 5 scrums produced 4 free kicks and a penalty. only 2 of them set properly. as far as i can tell, it's guess work for the ref in most cases unless obvious. perhaps we could have some more forwards being pushed to the top levels of refereeing?
with regard to farrell, i think a lot is bening made of minor issues. he blocked the french player yes, but did not throw an elbow in his throat as some are suggesting. the push at the start was uneccessary, but then he was also needlessly tripped. he doesnt have jonny wilkinson's character which i think people seem to expect from every england 10.
ashton is a prima donna though and struts a little too much for my liking (carries carpets under his arms) is it a northern or rugby league thing? or do we like our rugby players of the public school variety only?
there are plenty of other idiots playing rugby, just more attention given to the english ones
Posted 14:46 25th February 2013
nefari says...
Last year the Bulls scored 50 tries more than the crusaders, chiefs and sharks... next best was the hurricanes. So this whole "kicking" thing is pretty mute, the Bulls are guaranteed to score a lot of tries again this year.
Posted 14:17 25th February 2013
fozza says...
I struggle to see where the accusations of swagger etc come into Farrell and Ashton. I saw the shoulder being left in and the posturing by farrell against the French fifteen but it's no different than I've seen from Sexton and O Gara (especially against the argentinians) in the past. This was a physical encounter played with huge passion by both teams, each one guilty of the odd "wind up". I saw no evidence of any "swagger" from Ashton. Sure, he had the arrogance in the past, but I'm confident the World Cup and Stuart Lancaster has reigned this in significantly. As always, if it were other countries displaying this "Swagger" it would be fine.
And did England really play that badly? The French were excellent in the first half and Fofana may well have sewn up the try of the tournament but as the game went on I was confident the English had turned the screw and seemed to be the better team leading into the final quarter, bear in mind Farrell just taken the lead back for England before the (very) fortunate try. People are saying PSA made daft choices and it may well look that way, but who's to say the physicality of the game didn't take it's toll on the French.
I'm being Devil's advocate a bit here, but I think the criticism of England is a bit harsh. A year or two ago, the panic would've set in and mistakes would've been made leading to a convincing French victory. Here, the team knuckled down and deserved their win.
Posted 13:44 25th February 2013
JayStarr says...
It's not fair to judge the South African teams by the Bulls and Stormers game - it was a BAD game. Both teams looked like they were still in pre-season. If the Stormers can't even win a line-out or string a maul together - or are missing easy tackles - then you know they have not woken up yet. And the only thing the Bulls did well was kick - thanks to Morne Steyn who seems to finally have his mojo back...
On the other hand, if you look at the Sharks and Cheetahs game you have to agree that it was very much like the Chiefs v. Highlanders game. They were both breathless encounters and it was edge of the seat stuff right until the end...
And the fact is, last season the Cheetahs and Sharks were two of the best attacking teams in Super Rugby. So to charicature South African rugby as the way the Bulls and Stormers are currently playing the game is unfair and inaccurate. There IS diversity in our game. Even the Kings showed some moments of surprising enterprise with ball in hand... especially when Luke Watson was still on the field - he did a better SBW impersonation than SBW!
I would also say the same for the Australian conference - I think the Brumbies are once again playing a distinctly different game from the rest of the Australian teams. And Jesse Mogg's tries have been equal to any scored by NZ'ders thusfar.
Don't get me wrong - the skill level in NZ (on attack) is better than anyone else. But to say all NZ teams play the same, all AUS teams play the same and all SA teams play the same (and/or can't play attacking rugby as well as NZ) is wrong.
However, we agree that we're glad Super Rugby is back ! Even the Kings game was incredibly entertaining...
Posted 12:09 25th February 2013
Startledwombat says...
England's composure and self-belief does mean they are less likely than Wales to fluff the final ten minutes of a Test match.
Posted 11:17 25th February 2013
ironmanI441 says...
Decent article. Agree that the Super Rugby NZ games are just miles better at the moment than watching the South African and Aussie games, although the Brumbies and Rebels have been decent to watch.
On the point of pulling their head in, I agree with Farrell but not Ashton. I think Ashton has pulled his head in, is focusing on getting the job done, but is always a combative winger who is going to be in the thick of it. Just who he is and this is rugby not ballet.
However Farrell (although I like him) does seem to have a bit too much swagger at times. Daddy being a reknowned international at both union and league means silver spoon when coming through the ranks and probably isn't quite as good as a lot of the media makes out. I think he just needs to be aware he isn't even the best kicker in the competition right now (Grieg Laidlaw has the best stats), he doesn't ever interest the defence as he is slow as anything, so he does need some work. He just has an arrogance about him that even DC doesn't have. I think it is going to take an injury, losing his spot to Freddie Burns, or an absolute mauling by a back row before he pulls his head in. I am thinking if he gets left for dust by Beale/Cooper or Pocock turns him a dozen times this summer, he might be better off in the long run.
Posted 11:00 25th February 2013
artherfish says...
I won't profess to being super knowledgeable but i think anyone can see that the state of the srum is apauling and damageing the game. As it stands it seems to be a lottery as to what gets called by the ref. For me it is that huge and surely potential dangerous "Hit" that seems to cause all the problems. I'm firmly up for any law revision that takes us back to a push and proper feed style of scrum. I really don't see how the big impact can be defended as an integeral part of scrumageing. It would seem to put brute force ahead of skill. A good stable scrum allows the controlled use of preasure and good Hooking (as long as its a straight feed). If this is the result of this trial i say bring it on...!!!
Posted 10:57 25th February 2013