Uncontested Scrums

[TOCC]

World Rugby has offered clarification in the event a team has to revert to uncontested scrums because of yellow cards. Basically, if a team has to go to uncontested scrums because a player is sent off then they lose an additional player(2 players) to the bin.

Clarification 1 - 2018

These clarifications correlate specifically to fixtures where 23 player squads are in effect:

- Test Matches / Super Rugby / (New Zealand) Mitre 10 Cup / (New Zealand) Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 Tournament

When 23 players are named in a squad, the Laws require there to be:

- a starting loosehead prop - a replacement loosehead prop
- a starting hooker - a replacement hooker
- a starting tighthead prop - a replacement tighthead prop

When a front-row player is tactically replaced, they are subsequently able to return to the field for:
- an injured front row player
- a player with a blood injury
- a player undertaking a head injury assessment
- a player who has just been injured as a result of foul play
- a front row player who has been yellow/red carded

If a front row player is yellow-carded or red-carded, then the following process takes place:
1) The player who has been issued with a card leaves the field, the team reduced by 1 player

Where there IS a suitably trained front row player available to be used:
2) If there is another player on the field who is suitably trained to play in the ‘vacant’ front row position, then, at the next scrum, that player moves into the front row and the game continues with contested scrums

3) If there is no such player on the field, but there IS a suitably trained player on the reserves/replacements bench, then, at the next scrum:
a. A player is nominated to leave the field
b. The suitably trained replacement player joins the game
c. Contested scrums remain in force

Where there is NOT a suitably trained front row player available:
4) Scrums will become UNCONTESTED

5) A further sanction will be applied to the team not being able to contest scrums
a. A (nominated) PLAYER MUST LEAVE THE FIELD and the team reduced by a 2nd player

6) If there is ANY front row player available to play, that player must play in the front row before a non-front rower does so

7) In the case of a yellow card, at the completion of the 10 minute sin-bin period, playing numbers revert to 15 (both the yellow-carded and nominated player return to the field)

8) Uncontested scrums MUST be 8 players versus 8 players

 

[TOCC]

There have been occasions where this would have applied at test level, most recently In the Wales vs Georgia test last November when the Georgians dismantled the Welsh scrum, but eventually the Georgians lost their advantage because the Welsh scrum went uncontested.

 

[Zero_Cool]

World Rugby has offered clarification in the event a team has to revert to uncontested scrums because of yellow cards. Basically, if a team has to go to uncontested scrums because a player is sent off then they lose an additional player(2 players) to the bin.

Clarification 1 - 2018

These clarifications correlate specifically to fixtures where 23 player squads are in effect:

- Test Matches / Super Rugby / (New Zealand) Mitre 10 Cup / (New Zealand) Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 Tournament

When 23 players are named in a squad, the Laws require there to be:

- a starting loosehead prop - a replacement loosehead prop
- a starting hooker - a replacement hooker
- a starting tighthead prop - a replacement tighthead prop

When a front-row player is tactically replaced, they are subsequently able to return to the field for:
- an injured front row player
- a player with a blood injury
- a player undertaking a head injury assessment
- a player who has just been injured as a result of foul play
- a front row player who has been yellow/red carded

If a front row player is yellow-carded or red-carded, then the following process takes place:
1) The player who has been issued with a card leaves the field, the team reduced by 1 player

Where there IS a suitably trained front row player available to be used:
2) If there is another player on the field who is suitably trained to play in the ‘vacant’ front row position, then, at the next scrum, that player moves into the front row and the game continues with contested scrums

3) If there is no such player on the field, but there IS a suitably trained player on the reserves/replacements bench, then, at the next scrum:
a. A player is nominated to leave the field
b. The suitably trained replacement player joins the game
c. Contested scrums remain in force

Where there is NOT a suitably trained front row player available:
4) Scrums will become UNCONTESTED

5) A further sanction will be applied to the team not being able to contest scrums
a. A (nominated) PLAYER MUST LEAVE THE FIELD and the team reduced by a 2nd player

6) If there is ANY front row player available to play, that player must play in the front row before a non-front rower does so

7) In the case of a yellow card, at the completion of the 10 minute sin-bin period, playing numbers revert to 15 (both the yellow-carded and nominated player return to the field)

8) Uncontested scrums MUST be 8 players versus 8 players

Not entirely challenging this, but it feels very curious that this was previously the rules but this is clearly not the procedure followed in a number of International Games that I've seen it become an issue in. As having refereed other sports it's very very odd that a clarification be released without their having been a new rule or a previous rule that was 'allowed' to be interpreted differently. This stinks of World Rugby trying to close the loophole.
But it's a good thing that a team will lose another player when going to uncontested. It's just common sense.

 

[wamberal]

Put yourself in the position of a potential fan who is new to the game.



Is there any other sport on the planet whose rule book is so farking obtuse and technical?

 

[Braveheart81]

Plenty of popular sports are very technical if you dig below the superficial. The NFL in particular is unbelievably technical.

You make this point often wamberal and pretty much everyone disagrees with you. Rugby would not become more popular if the areas of the game that make it rugby (contest for possession) were dumbed down to the extent that they didn't need a lot of laws to make viable.

 

[wamberal]

The rusted on believers disagree with me. I can live with that. Go and ask somebody who is actually new to watching the game and tell what they think.


The thing about sports like the NFL and also basketball is that the technicalities do not appear to affect the game, at least not in the eyes of the casual viewer. And i watched an awful lot of these sports in my many years living and working in Asia.


On the other hand, a game of rugby can be totally turned on its head by an arbitrary decision about an area of the game which used to be just about a restart after an error, but which now has become an end in itself.


Who is talking about "dumbing down"? Was the game "dumb" when the scrum was just a restart? That was not all that many years ago.


Enjoy it while you can. The increasing majority of Australian sports fans just cannot be bothered. The few hundred or so keen scrum fans who populate this forum are welcome to the view. Some of us can see a bit further than our noses.

 

[TOCC]

Any sport can be turned on it’s head by an arbitrary decision, wait for the outcry on the NRLs new ruling of the playing the ball.. 4 penalties alone in the trial match between the Cowboys and Tigers.

Rules aren’t perfect, but they aren’t the problem, the product that is being served is the problem, that being Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.