Ex-Wallabies boss: The scrum is already depowered… you don’t need to change anything
Wales and Scotland scrum in the Six Nations, and former Wallabies head coach Ewen McKenzie.
Former Wallabies head coach Ewen McKenzie believes that the scrum has already been “depowered” from what it was “20 or 30 years” ago.
There have been accusations that World Rugby and other unions are attempting to reduce the impact of that set-piece.
One such law, which prevents scrums being taken following free-kick, has come into global effect, while others are currently being trialled in Super Rugby Pacific.
Certain countries – most notably France and South Africa – are not happy with the direction World Rugby have gone, but McKenzie claims that the scrum is already very different to what it once was.
The scrum is ‘overmanaged’
“My perspective is the scrum’s already been depowered. If you go back 30 years where you had to have technical ability up front, that’s all gone anyway, so it’s already been depowered in the name of safety,” he said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“You’re either going to get rid of it completely – you can’t depower it any more, it’s overmanaged now in my opinion.”
The former Wallabies boss appeared on the podcast alongside another ex-Australia head honcho in Eddie Jones, who is not a fan of the law changes, and McKenzie agrees that the scrum needs to be protected.
“I don’t agree with taking it away; if you write it off, you will change the body shapes and the whole fundamentals of the game change, so you can’t depower it any more,” he said.
“If you switch to other options to restart play like free-kicks, you’ve got to remember scrums are the one opportunity where you get space.
“All the forwards are gathered in one spot and that’s why rugby league still keeps it in its game, even though it’s only a scrum in name – everyone’s in the scrum but nobody actually scrums.
“What it does is give space around the field to maybe do something tactically and that’s one area of the game that’s starting to develop, and teams are doing better off the set-play.
“That opportunity still exists off scrums. If you go free-kick, everyone’s going to fan out and you’re back on the 13 versus 13 or 14 versus 14 in defence.”
Adhering to the shot clock
Australia and New Zealand have generally been the drivers behind reducing the impact of the scrum. They are looking to increase the ball-in-play time and put emphasis on the attacking side of the game but, as McKenzie stated, the set-piece is a very useful way to score tries.
The 60-year-old feels that it can simply be improved by the referees getting the game moving quicker. Shot clocks have been introduced by World Rugby, but they are not been adhered to strictly by the officials.
“Yes, it’s faster but we already know that the scrum can be done quicker. I actually heard it on the weekend in Super Rugby one of the Australia refs was saying: ‘Come on, let’s go, let’s get the scrum done’,” he said.
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“It was good to hear the referee say that. Everyone usually goes for the water bottles, including the referee, so we need to keep the tempo of the game up, and it was.
“Look at some video from 20 or 30 years, the scrums were more technical and they were much faster. When we played in the 1991 World Cup final, there was like 40 scrums. These days, there’s 20 less, so a lot more scrums, you just didn’t notice because they were done quickly and you moved on.
“It’s up to the players, it’s up to the referees to keep the tempo of the game up, you don’t need to change anything.”