Do Ireland Scrum Illegally

[nigelmac]

The airiel view of scrums at Murrayfield yesterday showed clearly that Ireland were not setting on the square, the back row seemed to be about 15 degrees off square. This I think made it impossible for them to drive straight, indeed most of the drives were diagonal. It is a penalty offence to not drive straight. Even without the overhead camera it was obvious that most of the scrums were seriously askew before the ball was put in. Are referees on the lookout for this? M.Poite certainly didn't look for it yesterday

 

[Dunhookin]

You're probably right Nigel - but referees appear to have a set menu of priorities for scrums. First priority - find fault. They fuss anally over minutia, looking to penalise and whistle at nigh on 50% of scrums. They take way too long to voice the set commands - and don't get me started on the BS of having to wait for referees to grant permission for the put in.

Then having interfered way too much - they stand by and do exactly nothing about bent feeding that couldn't be more obvious. The Scots have a word for the whole debacle - sh*te! WR are failing our game - abjectly

 

[duncanb]

Yes you are correct but then again so does everyone else.

 

[munstermuffin]

Just on this lads. Anyone watching BBC yesterday would have got great lesson from Paul O'Connell. He used aerial view and said reason Scottish scrum was so bad was locks were pushing in different direction to frontrow. Great to see how the little mechanics effect overall picture

 

[nigelmac]

I'm sure he's right but the ref should be setting them square before the Scrum starts.

 

[Which Tyler]

Yes you are correct but then again so does everyone else.

This, if they're scrummaging legally, then they're not doing their job properly

 

[ALJ]

the back row seemed to be about 15 degrees off square.

I would expect this as part of their job is to ensure the props stay aligned (i.e. do not get forced outward from 2nd row pressure) - that in turn should lead to a more effective front five/eight unit as all the effort is going in a forward direction.

I know the front row is a dark art, which makes all the difference to whether or not a scrum is effective but it always surprises me when a front five can't at least form a strong unit (as per Muffin's comment above), especially at professional/international level.