In this week's RugbyIQ.com blog I thought I would share some information which I thought was fascinating. I discovered this info whilst doing some analysis in refs' behaviour at scrum time.
My objective behind doing the analysis is solely to understand what areas at scrum time the referees seem to have the biggest problem with.
In other words, if I can learn which areas of the scrum the referees are most wanting to police/enforce then, obviously, it will help understand what other areas need special attention when it comes to coaching the scrum.
The analysis that has been done is on all the Super 15 referees to date and I have concentrated on studying the penalties that these refs have awarded at scrum time during the 2011 season.
In sharing this interesting information with you, I have chosen not to name the referees specifically because this exercise is more about learning to adapt as a coach - it's not at all about criticising the referee but rather working with them.
The first thing we looked at in this analysis was the percentage of penalties at scrum time as a percentage of total penalties awarded overall. The average was 13%, which basically means that - on average - 13% of all referees' penalties occur at scrum time.
When looking at the specific referees this percentage differed quite dramatically with two refs never awarding a penalty at scrum time and one referee having awarded 20% of all his penalties at scrum time - hence giving us an average of 13%.
It is the referee who awarded 20% of his penalties at scrum time (this equates to 36 of all his penalties awarded) that I would like to analyse even further; obviously because he has awarded the most (scrum time penalties) and because he has done this over a ten-game period. (Also note that I am only discussing the long-arm penalties that he has awarded and not free-kicks.)
The three most prominent areas the referee has penalised at scrum time is when the defending loosehead prop (five penalties) has dropped his bind, where the defending loosehead has put his hand on the ground (eight) and where the defending loosehead has gone straight down (four). As these are the three most prominent areas (i.e. 17 of his total penalties awarded) it is obvious for all to see that a pattern is already forming with the defending loosehead bearing most of the brunt of the referee's whistle.
When it was clear where the pattern was forming, I thought it particularly relevant to look at the referee's position at scrum time. For this referee in question, he stood on the side of the attacking tighthead (and defending loosehead), which is the opposite side from where the scrumhalf feeds the ball; for 35 of the 36 penalties awarded.
Upon further investigation, I, again, found it relevant to see how many penalties went against the attacking team and how many went against the defending team.
Again, this provided fascinating insight because 81% (29 of 36 penalties) of all penalties awarded by this ref was against the defending team and obviously just 19% (7 of 36 penalties) against the attacking team. Three of the seven penalties against the attacking team was against the attacking loosehead for leading in on the angle and, alarmingly, 26 of the 29 penalties against the defending team were specifically against the loosehead on the team defending. (Which is a further nine on top of the 17 we mentioned earlier.)
So basically in conclusion, whilst I am not at all suggesting that any of the penalties awarded by the refs are not valid, I am not convinced that it's a coincidence that over 80% of penalised infringements at scrum time take place on the side of the scrum that the referee stands. And, to reiterate what I said earlier, I am not at all saying that the refs are at fault here, but perhaps the powers that be could take a closer look at this leading into the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
What do you feel about this and what are your suggestions here, knowing how fantastic an attacking weapon the scrum can be?
Until next time,
Gary
