Since the weekend there’s been loads of discussion about the “McCaw scrum try” – nowhere more so then on Bob Dwyer’s post about the game here on G&GR.
Towards the end of yesterday, a comment came in from someone who’d been at the ground listening on Sports Ears (the radio link from the ref and his assistants). Our commenter recollected that the assistant ref had told Mark Lawrence about McCaw breaking away both after the re-set scrum, and during the scum off which the try was scored.
An interesting revelation, but not an accurate one. Obviously we’re interested in searching out the truth here so we had another look!
As the video below shows, the Assistant Ref – Christie du Preez – was in fact telling Mark Lawrence that the New Zealand loose head, Tony Woodcock, had slipped his bind and placed his hand on the ground after engagement in the first scrum. Lawrence asked Du Preez to tell him “live” next time, which the Assistant ref does in the very next scrum; the one that the All Blacks score from.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQwQpsq5Ek[/youtube]
