France aim to abolish age-old ‘shady’ scrum tactics that Rassie Erasmus argued were ‘against the spirit of the game’
Scrum between France and South Africa during the Rugby World Cup and an inset of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.
French officials are aiming to stamp out a pet hate amongst rugby fans this season by targeting ‘shady’ scrum tactics during the Top 14 and PRO D2.
Ahead of the 2025/26 season, new officiating guidelines have been issued with the aim of “restoring fairness” and “making refereeing decisions clearer”, the governing body of the two competitions (the LNR) confirmed.
Included in the new tweaks is the introduction of an orange card, which will be in place instead of a 20-minute red card and will be used for acts that don’t quite meet a full sending-off threshold, but the act exceeds a yellow card.
These guidelines were agreed upon at a collaborative meeting in Loudenvielle last week between the coaching staffs of the respective French clubs and the match officials of the two leagues.
Outside of the introduction of the orange card, the new guidelines are centred around more vigilance and clarification of the laws rather than trials and changes, while it has been confirmed that fans in attendance will also be able to hear the referee over the stadium speakers during matches.
Stamping out skew scrum feeds
While more focus will be placed on the attacking players at the ruck this season in France, and clarity was provided on player diving to score tries, after Dan Sheehan’s controversial score in the British and Irish Lions Test series, the most interesting guideline for officials is perhaps the focus on scrum feeds.
World Rugby Law 19.15 (f) reads: “When both sides are square, stable and stationary, the scrum-half throws in the ball: Straight. The scrum-half may align their shoulder on the middle line of the scrum, thereby standing a shoulder-width closer to their side of the scrum.”
Additionally, Law 19.22 during the scrum states: “The hooker from the team which threw in the ball must strike for the ball.”
These two laws, more particularly the first, are often overlooked by officials and are a real bugbear for fans and coaches, but the officials in scrum-loving France will be out to create a fairer contest this season, head of referees for the Top 14 and PRO D2, Mathieu Raynal, has confirmed.
The long-neglected laws will be a priority for the officials, with scrum feeds needing to be straight, and hookers must attempt to heel the ball backwards on their own feeds as the top two divisions in France strive for a more contested scrum.
In addition to this, every two months meetings will be held between scrum coaches and France assistant William Servat to ensure that the set-piece is not just refereeing consistently and halting the trend of unfair contests.
“Everyone agrees that there was a shift in the way scrum feeds were being handled. Even the staff acknowledges it,” Raynal said in an interview with RugbyRama.
“We were letting shady feeds go through, and it lacked fairness. This season, we decided to be more rigorous. Everyone is aware of it, referees and staff, and everyone has validated this desire to be stricter.
“It’s not that we’re going to whistle everything at once, but if we start sanctioning regularly, the teams will adapt, especially since the scrum coaches will insist on it in training.
“We’re not going to quibble over details, but rather restore fairness. It’s not the referee alone who decides, it’s a global consensus.”
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Erasmus’ argument
The decision comes after Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus called out Italy for skewed scrum feeds during the first Test match between the two sides in July.
South Africa manufactured a scrum from the opening play of the match in the second Test in response to the Azzurri tactics by purposefully taking the restart short, handing Italy the set-piece on the halfway line.
Italy boss Gonzalo Quesada took exception to the ploy in the post-match press conference, while the tactic was also dubbed as being against the spirit of the game.
Erasmus took to social media with his response posting a video of an Italian scrum feed that was blatantly skew with no hook from the front row, with the caption: “I guess one can always argue what is against the spirit of the game!! Some teams avoid scrums and others make sure they get scrums! Who’s wrong”.
READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus slams claims that new Springboks tactics are ‘against the spirit of the game’
