Scrum watershed could be a blessing in disguise for rugby

Senior Sports Writer

Monday 11 March 2013

The 50th anniversary of a match which helped change the face of rugby by forcing the lawmakers to change the rules was marked in horribly appropriate fashion on Saturday as another potential spectacle was wrecked by one man.

Referee Craig Joubert looks for another scrum infringement. Picture: Sammy Turner/SNS

Custom byline text:

Kevin Ferrie

In 1963 the 80 minutes between Wales and Ireland were interrupted by 111 lineouts. It remains an incredible statistic and in spite of the fact that Wales claimed a first victory in 10 years, one of the smallest ever International Championship attendances at Cardiff was registered. It took the International Rugby Board (IRB) several years to respond to Welsh scrum-half Clive Rowlands' hideously pragmatic approach.

This time, after the majority in a capacity crowd were bored rigid by a match which set a new record for penalty shots at goal in a championship match –18 in all – they had better take heed a lot more quickly.The main culprit on Saturday was Craig Joubert, the South African referee, who could hardly get off the Murrayfield pitch fast enough at the end. He helped expose the failings of current scrummage rules and practice and – even though the numbers were not as spectacular as when Rowlands spent the afternoon minimising the amount of time the ball spent in play – the fact that only three of 13 scrums were properly contested is a disgraceful figure.No-one in the home camp was pretending that Scotland would have won had the officiating been different, but the threat to the sport was well articulated by Scott Johnson, the caretaker coach."I've spoken to the IRB about it and I spoke to Craig (Joubert) about it ahead of the game. He notoriously, statistically, gives the least amount of penalties at scrums so it was an odd day at the office for him," he said."We struggle with the fact that set means go, but some sides are getting half cute and are actually not going at all, so there's an illusion that you're going early when the other mob are not going at all. "I'm no scrum guru but all I can say is that if you want to sell to the mass you want a competition and we want a competition because we've got a good scrum, a quality scrum. We're not trying to avoid one, so the game, if it's true to its values, needs a competitive set-piece and we're all for that. I can't find the panacea but all I can say is that I found it as frustrating as anyone."Scrum-half Greig Laidlaw, fast becoming a short to medium range kicker of comparable class to Chris Paterson, managed to knock over six of his eight attempts in exceedingly difficult conditions, four of them in the first half which Scotland should have ended in front. Leigh Halfpenny knocked over eight of his 11 which included the conversion of the game's solitary try. Appropriately, given the overall nature of proceedings, it was far from a stylish effort, Richard Hibbard squeezing his way over from a range of around six inches. It was a great moment for the Welsh hooker who may be forcing his way into British and Irish Lions contention.That and the mess that was the scrummaging apart, the key factor in the match was Scotland's appalling lack of discipline, worst exemplified by Jim Hamilton blatantly leaping offside at a ruck to allow Halfpenny the kick that crucially edged his side ahead with the first half's final kick. Setting aside the rights and wrongs of the scrummaging issue, Scotland's indiscipline at the breakdown was also a telling factor. Rob Howley, the Welsh coach, expressed deep unhappiness at the dozen penalties his team gave away. Scotland conceded 16.The tone was set from the start when Scotland conceded two free-kicks for early engagement at the opening scrummage, were spoken to and forced to hang back, allowing Wales to drive them backwards and upwards and let Halfpenny open the scoring on four minutes. Scotland responded directly from the kick off and led twice, first when Laidlaw knocked over his second penalty in 11 minutes then when the scrum-half struck twice more after Hibbard's 21st-minute try. Hamilton's crucial indiscretion meant Scotland were behind after a half in which they had largely had the benefit of the elements which helped Duncan Weir settle in for an impressive performance on his first Test start. They had also lost their strongest contender for a place in the British and Irish Lions Test team, Richie Gray, to a hamstring tear after half an hour, and they never threatened to register the try they needed to really have a chance.And so kick followed kick and Wales ground their way to a win that gives them an outside chance of defending their title when England visit the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. However Scotland, already assured of avoiding the bottom third of the championship table for the first time in seven years head for France looking to finish a championship with a winning record for the first time since 2006. Perhaps, though, the biggest opportunity presented by this match is to the sport's lawmakers since it has given them all the evidence they need to make the case for fundamentally changing the game by removing the 'hit' from the scrummage.

Contextual targeting label:

Sport

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Scrum watershed could be a blessing in disguise for rugby

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED