Large props and hookers who gained an advantage from trailing after the engagement will now have to actually use more technique as they will be starting the context from a more stationary position.
The stationary position is key to the change even if it is for a brief moment. I wish the referees would pay more attention to this matter than the two refs in Argentina did - especially the second one.
I thought the bind on the 'bind' command should have been longer so there was not so much 'play' possible between shoulder and shoulder. Instead there was so much 'play' that a mini-hit was possible on the 'set'.
McKibbin realised this when he came off the bench in the second game and delayed the put-in until the scrum was steady, probably thinking that a delay, and the possible sanction against him for doing so, was not worse for NSW than if he put the ball in as the Argies were moving forward.
I'd like to see the referees being fussier about the bind being long and the scrum steady than in those two games—then the push coming only when the ball is put in as the laws stipulate. This is what the best referees insisted on in the 1950s and 1960s.
Otherwise we will see the rebirth of the hit and its eventual escalation—and on the other side of things we will see the tiresome delay of the put-in which was mastered by Gregan.
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