Two weeks ago I had the unfortunate experience of following Northampton Saints down to Exeter to play the Chiefs. The match didn’t go to plan and Northampton were brutally defeated 21-10.
However the only thing I could take away from this game was how unbelievably boring and time consuming the scrum has become. After nearly every scrum referee Wayne Barnes awarded a penalty to Exeter; I didn’t have a clue what the majority of these penalties were for and I am sure many others were equally as clueless.
The only way I could describe the scrummaging process at this particular match would be: 16 over-sized men start pushing against each other, one over-sized man either pops out or falls to ground, a penalty is awarded cueing everyone in the ground to turn to their mate and ask ‘what was that for?’.
It has got so bad you often see mud-covered faces look up with genuine shock if a scrum-half manages to successfully take a ball out the back of a scrum.
After enduring 80 minutes of penalty after penalty at scrum-time I finally gave in and went to the toilet and by the time I returned, I hadn’t missed a second of action. Unless you consider action to be a group of portly men being forced to fall flat onto their backside.
A few days later, this time in the comfort of my home, I watched as Clermont edged out Saracens with minutes remaining. With two minutes left a scrum was awarded to Clermont and the entire Parc des Sports arose as if they had just sealed victory. They knew their pack of fat-boys forwards could simply run down the clock and ensure passage to the final of the Champions Cup.
The scrum used to be a set piece that was pivotal to the game of rugby; it really signified everything about our beautiful game. A moment where the sheer physicality would take your breath away; now when players arrive for scrum time it looks as though they are relieved to have a breather while their kicker gets his tee ready.
The scrum has become a farce and is now a way of securing a shot at goal rather than a way of restarting the game. While they will never admit it, the chiefs at World Rugby need to have another look at the scrum.
As it stands it is a poor method of restarting play and only achieves wasted time and a torn up pitch.
Despite all this, the scrum is a cornerstone of rugby and I would rather see it fixed than abolished.
It would be a sad day when our chubby friends in the front row can no longer brag about securing that mightily important scrum. After all what else would they do?
The Story: Missed chances costly against chiefs
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