5. Scrum contesting
The Law Amendment Trials which outlaw the power hit, in effect, may not be everybody’s cup of tea but I am enjoying the fact that the ball is coming out of the scrum of the team that does not put the ball into the scrum in Super Rugby, so often.
It could be better still if the referees had maintained their early insistence of putting the ball down the mid-channel of the scrum, but they have relapsed to easy habits.
They closed a blind eye to what was happening in the days of the power hit because the front rowers’ feet were all over the place from the impact and the tunnel was corrupted. But now the hit is outlawed the officials and players have no excuse.
Scrum time – time to try something different
Referees are too lax in getting the front-rowers ear to ear; so there is too much play on the shove, which is like a mini-hit. You see a nice long bind on the “bind” but it is bent like in the bad old days on the “set”.
I think they should go to neck to neck on the “bind”; so the amount of “play” between the front rows on the “set” is reduced—and get them to hold until the ball is thrown in as the laws prescribe.
One day, maybe fifty years from now some bright spark in the IRB is going to say:
Why don’t we get the referee to put the ball into the scrum and he can get a good idea of the silly-bugger games that are going on too?
Basketball officials get to throw the ball up and in Aussie Rules their guys throw the ball in and bounce the ball to restart play.
Why not try something different in rugby union and let the referee feed the scrum? How about in the National Rugby Championship this year ARU? I don’t like the idea that much and it may not work, but you can always ditch it after a couple of weeks.
Where is the harm in trying something that may stop time-wasting when there’s a scrum?
