Great post dullonien. Made me think about the scrum in new ways. Like all that force from the 8 must be coming through the tighthead-hooker channel too. It also appears as if that's why massive locks fit in at 4, so they can use their weight to support their tighthead.
One question to all though... people saying that tightheads anchor and looseheads disrupt, why is it that tightheads seem to do better at winning penalties?
I wouldn't say they necessarly are. Watching the AB vs France game all the penalties were won by Crockett. But again, its easier in many ways for a LH's head to pop out of the scrum without the hooker - and it's also the LH who can get done more for boring in.
I play both sides but prefer loosehead. The main reason I feel people prefer one side over the other is simply that the technique needed for both are just completely different. Sorry if this is exactly what someone else said not thinking straight at the moment.
Also I notice people also saying about the anchoring and the loosehead being the destructive influence, I agree with this in principle but there's a reason a turnover at the scrum is called a tighthead. If your tighthead is able to get a really good strong scrum the other team is ****ed.
I tend to agree with the first part.
While I agree that when you see one scrum dominate the other in terms of one team just getting pushed way back - that's a TH because the ball will usually go under the TH prop in a streight line. When you see a scrum however wheel past the 90 degrees, that's almost always the LH props doing - as in that instance the TH acts more as the pivot to which the LH drives.
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