SA Rugby ref boss: The scrum is no longer the ‘hardest’ facet to officiate after ex-All Blacks guru’s selfless work
Springboks v All Blacks scrum and an inset of Mike Cron.
Former All Blacks scrum coach Mike Cron has been hailed for his ‘cleaning up’ of the set-piece, making it easier for referees to officiate that facet of the game.
Cron is well-renowned for his work with New Zealand’s scrum, working with the All Blacks in over 200 Test matches, including the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup victories.
In 2024, he linked up with the Wallabies under Joe Schmidt, assisting the team before stepping down from his position last year to resume his retirement, but still continues to aid Rugby Australia with a mentoring role with the front-row forwards of the future and also emerging rugby coaches.
Mauls are now more difficult to officiate than scrums
Additionally, he has been lending his expertise to World Rugby, helping with the laws of the set-piece and has played a significant role in achieving a more consistent approach to officiating the scrum.
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus praised his work with World Rugby, stating that the scrum is now officiated ’10 times better’.
SA Rugby national law advisor and head of referees in South Africa, Jaco Peyper, agrees with Erasmus.
He believes that scrums used to be the most difficult part of the game to referee but now, it is the maul thanks largely to the work done by man known as the ‘scrum doctor’ in New Zealand.
Peyper explained his reasoning when asked by Springboks’ scrum guru Daan Human, “What is the toughest area of the game to officiate?” on the Rassie+ podcast.
“It used to be the scrums,” the former referee replied.
“But since we’ve got this clear four-step process and coaches coach players play to that, I think it has become significantly better.
“There’s no doubt that it is now the maul because there’s no clear four-step process, there’s no stability. If you have a full lineout, and you can have an even bigger lineout if you have eight players in there, it’s then 16 players and 32 feet, and moving parts.
“That’s why the maul is so hard to referee at the moment, because we allow people to shear to the side, where scrums are simple, you have to control your weight on the setup, you have to be square, and then when you punch, you actually have to be able to control that and once the ball rolls in, it’s so easy to see who’s doing this and who is doing that. It’s all bang, bang, bang.
“Mike Cron should take most of the credit. I know there are a lot of players there, but he cleared it up. He is a highly knowledgeable guy; it came through a proper law lab, and they tested it.”
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Selfless work
Erasmus added that Cron’s work is selfless, as he is not pushing a narrative or trying to achieve anything in order to benefit a specific team.
“And he didn’t want to favour somebody in the end. He wanted to favour the referees and the crowd,” the Bok boss said.
Peyper agreed and the experiences he had with Cron during his officiating days, which differed from many other coaches and is something that Human is also taking on board with his approach to referees.
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He added that Cron has removed the need for over 80 potential scrum calls with the four-step process. While officials can still make use of those laws, the scrum doctor’s simplification has made it easier for referees who may have never experienced being in a scrum.
“One of the beauties when you refereed the All Blacks, he would sit after the game with me or other referees, he would say, ‘This is what our prop was doing, look at his knee angle, he should have done this better’,” Peyper explained.
“So he wouldn’t have talked about the opposition, he would talk about the scrum, he would talk about the best shapes that you can have in a scrum, and he was serving rugby.”
