Law Discussion: Scrums

Recently the International Rugby Board ran a course at Lensbury in London for top referees and referee managers from top countries. They resolved to get scrumming right.

They decided that there were too many collapsed scrums - dangerous for players and drab for spectators.

Present was the great refereeing statistician, Corris Thomas, the former international referee. He was able to tell the meeting that scrums now took an average of 49 seconds, as against 33 seconds in 2006, There is an average of 18 scrums per match with an average of 10 resets per match..  That means that in 80 minutes of match 14 minutes 42 seconds are taken up with getting the ball into and out of a scrum, which is 9 minutes 54 seconds. That means that - as an average - scrumming in top matches in 2009 is taking 4 minutes 48 seconds longer than it did in 2006.

Time is not added on for what happens at scrums.

On the IRB's instructions the assembled referees noted things they were to look for (all 17 of them) and they discussed ways of solving the problems of the scrum and agreed on actions to take.

They then went forth and refereed.

The six matches came up with the following statistics:

France vs South Africa: 17 scrums - 0 reset, 4 collapses 2 free kicks 2 penalties
Wales vs Samoa: 19 scrums - 8 resets, 3 free kicks, 1 penalty. (One scrum was reset four times.)
England vs Argentina: 18 scrums - 7 resets, 8 collapses, 3 free kicks, 1 penalty
Scotland vs Fiji: 19 scrums - 9 resets, 4 collapses, 3 free kicks, 1 penalty
Ireland vs Australia: 14 scrums - 7 resets, 5 collapses, 2 free kicks, 2 penalties
Italy vs New Zealand: 25 scrums - 16 resets, 20 collapses, 1 free kick, 7 penalties.

Total: 102 scrums, 55 resets - 54%

Previously: 18 scrums, 10 resets  - 56%

The improvement is not great but then it is that one match which destroys the average - Italy vs New Zealand and it is even worse when one considers that not one New Zealand scrum was reset or collapsed or incurred a free kick or a penalty.

The stats for Italian scrums were: 16 scrums - 16 resets, 17 collapses, 1 free kick, 7 penalties.

16 scrums - 16 resets = 100%.

That's not great.

Packing in the Italian front row was Martín Castrogiovanni, already a legend for his scrumming  ability. Mind you, he was standing on the touch-line when the big crunch came.

During the week Castrogiovanni had played prop for a Leicester Tigers team against a South African touring team. Same prop, same referee. It was bad but not as bad as what happened in Milan:

11 scrums - 6 resets, 4 collapses, 5 penalties.

In the match between Italy and New Zealand in Milan, Italy laid siege to the New Zealand line, starting with a five-metre line-out in New Zealand's left corner. The Italians stayed there for just under 13 minutes.

It started with two five-metre line-outs which were followed by seven five-metre scrums. They went like this:

Scrum 1 - reset, penalty for offside
Scrum 2  - collapse, reset, collapse, penalty and a warning
Scrum 3 -  collapse, reset, collapse, penalty and a yellow card
Scrum 4 - penalty as the scrum went up
Scrum 5 - collapse, reset
Scrum 6 - collapse, reset, collapse but the ball came out for a penalty
Scrum 7 -  collapse but the ball came out till play was unplayable.

Pity the referee. It must have been a nightmare.

He did not opt out but acted. He gave a yellow card to Neemia Tialata who was penalised four times at the scrum in the match. That meant the return of  Wyatt Crockett and the departure of Liam Messam to reduce the All Blacks to 14 men. but the next scrum was penalised as Crockett went up.

What was the referee to do?

Should he then send Crockett off to the sin bin, reducing the game to uncontested scrums and robbing Italy of their main weapon?

Should he have given a penalty try? It would have got him off the hook but a penalty try is not for repeated infringements but only for using illegal means to prevent the probable scoring of a try. Twice in this sequence of scrums the Italian pack had the nudge on but it would not have convinced anybody that they were on their way to scoring a penalty try. The referee battled on.

It is clear that we are still a long way from having "proper" scrums. Is it because of over-regulation?