Few features of the great game have come under more scrutiny than the scrum. Labelled as a ‘plight of the modern game’ to a ‘time wasting sideshow’ kept in the game in an attempt by the ruling body to preserve what little remnants there is left of days gone by as well as to appease the aptly named ‘pigs’ (the props and hookers) who still find joy in watching four consecutive reset scums, the scrum continues to be a time-wasting element of the game that can not yet be solved.
Subsequently, due to its almost universal dislike minus the 5% of rugby diehards, it is by far the part of the game that lawmakers have tried to tinker with the most. From “touch, pause, engage” to “crouch, touch, pause, engage” to throwing a “set” in there somewhere, the actual set of instructions from the referee has changed so much in the past 15 years that even the most diehard fan would struggle to recite to you the current instruction combination.
While there are arguments in scrapping the harsh and intense nature of the scrum perhaps leaning toward a rugby league approach, there is a more simplistic solution to rugby scrumming problems which has been adopted by competitions in the past but for some reason has been stricken from the law book
Keep the scrum as it is, if a scrum needs resetting – an instant short arm penalty to the attacking team…
There are obviously a number of by-laws that will need implementation on top of this law ie; ensuring that if it was an attacking 5m scrum, it would just be reset as normal (so as to avoid the attacking team being awarded a short arm penalty with the 9 quick tapping and diving over) – or other by-laws that avoided this occurring.
This law change would assist the game two fold. It gives the attacking team the ball which would have most likely occurred anyway and it takes the needless resetting of the scrum out of the game. However the law doesn’t discourage teams attacking the scrum so it still gives incentives for teams to develop and choose good scrummagers. It would be a tweak that tidies the area up without changing the nature of the competition.
Even the biggest rugby tragics have to admit – the scrum and its ruling, in it’s current state is a shambles – but that’s no reason to scrap them altogether. If you think about the nature of the game and what sets it
apart from others, the scrum, effected well and ruled well is actually a phenomenon entirely unique to rugby union. Where else would you see the weight, strength, size and technique of eight team members pitted directly against eight opposing team members in such a raw and intense environment?