Originally Posted by tealady:
“The pitch was poor, so some of the time, they just slipped and collapsed.
Brian Moore said they weren't binding correctly.
Maybe sensoria will add some more comments.
Yes, but the ball is never put in straight!!
It's it more about getting a nudge on and moving forward slightly, so that the opp are slightly on the back foot, making it harder for their back row to get into play.
France were impressive today - speed of thought, hand, great ball skills, offloads, angles.
England will get murdered if they kick aimlessly back to the French.”
There are a number of problems with the modern scrummaging laws that cause the problems we see in the modern game. these changes have come about on the premise of safety but I believe at the top level you are not far of a broken neck.
In years gone by the ref would make a mark the 2 groups of eight would bind then come together there was no crouch, touch, pause, engage. As a result the "hit" was not as significant as it is now.
In the modern game the scrums are to close together the front rows are going in to low so as these two groups collide with a combined force of 2 tons going through the front rows they will only ever go up, or down. The force of the hit is so great that you only have to be a centemeter to low and you are going straight down.
Combine this with the fact that when they collapse no one knows why and you have a 50-50 chance of getting possesion from a scrum penalty.
1: heads and shoulders have to be above hips.
2: more sending offs at collapsed scrums.
3: remove the hit from the scrum have the 2 packs come together without and engagement then contest for the ball.
4: linesman comes into the field of play for scrums to cover both sides of the scrum.
As long as you have this longwinded crouch, touch, pause, engage thing then scrummaging will continue to collapse and ruin the game.
I have to say a well contested scrum and a good battle in that area is what interests me more than trys!