Ex-Wallabies hooker slams ‘dangerous as hell’ scrum law in wake of All Blacks controversy as he hits out at World Rugby ‘idiot’
Springboks and All Blacks scrummage and Wallabies great Jeremy Paul.
Former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul has claimed that World Rugby’s ‘brake foot’ law is “dangerous” after an All Blacks coach’s comments stirred debate following their Springboks defeat.
New Zealand were penalised twice early on against South Africa at the weekend for scrum infringements, firstly with a free-kick and then with a long-arm penalty.
On both occasions, referee Karl Dickson was unhappy with their brake foot, where the hooker has one foot positioned in the middle of the tunnel prior to engagement.
That prompted All Blacks forwards guru Neil Barnes to comment that “no one gives a s*** about” that law.
Why World Rugby introduced it and what it’s designed for
It was first introduced four years ago with World Rugby stating that it is designed to create more stability and reduce axial loading – the pressure on the head and neck.
But Paul, who played in the front-row for the Wallabies between 1998 and 2006, disagrees and believes that it is not safe.
“That is dangerous as hell, you’ve got 900 kilos behind you. We’re going to go back to 5ft 5in hookers because anyone over 6ft 2in, you’re going to struggle,” he told the GBRANZ podcast.
“You have to bring that foot back so you’re on the balls of your feet because then in that way you actually go in safely.
“What they’re asking you to do is come up over your front foot, they’re asking you to plant your front foot. It’s actually an incredibly hard thing to do to leave your foot there because you’re not actually going in straight and safe.
“Whichever idiot in World Rugby decided to bring this rule in about brake foot, you are up for a massive, massive hurt here where it’s dangerous, it’s absolutely dangerous. You can’t have the hookers having a flat foot when the other seven players are on the balls of their feet.
“When you say brake foot, I can’t stop 900 f*****g kilos from coming behind me, I can’t stop it by having my foot planted on the ground. Everybody’s got to be on the balls of their feet and it’s insane referees are penalising.”
Paul was joined on the show by All Blacks legend Kieran Read, who tended to agree with Barnes about whether there should be so much focus on it.
“It’s a pointless thing too, it makes no difference. What you want is a scrum up and square, you want it up off the ground, so no matter how it gets there, keep it up, get it going,” Read said.
“People don’t want to watch the reset. You want a contest, yes, the contest has got to be there, but don’t go looking for something.”
Paul’s suggestion to help officials
The scrum has always been considered one of the hardest things to referee but Paul believes there is a way of making it simpler for the officials, especially following the All Blacks’ “walking around” complaint
“It’s everything to do with your hips in a scrum. As soon as your hips start to split, that’s when you start to splinter,” he said.
“In terms of when it’s your ball… the loosehead is channel one and they’ve got to keep their hips close to the hooker. As soon as it’s opposition ball, they will kick their hips out because they’ve got nowhere else to go.
“For a referee to referee the walking around s***, everything else, just look at the hips. You’re on the loosehead side watching the put-in, so you can see on the opposite side where that loosehead’s hips are.
“To make a ruling, it’s very simple. If the loosehead on the defensive side has broken away from the hips here (the hooker), it’s their fault – it’s that simple.
“They’ve made out this whole walking around and it’s because of this, it’s bull****, no one ever walks around on their own ball.
“If everyone scrummaged like they’re scrummaging on their own ball, we could eliminate all these bull**** rules and get rid of this brake-foot as that’s dangerous; you’re going to break someone’s neck.
“It’s as simple as that and you fix scrummaging.”
