Os has handle on scrums

04 March 2012 - 02:15 By Dan Retief
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Dan Retief
Dan Retief

OS DU Randt's career at the heart of the scrum spanned 13 years and 80 tests and was book-ended by a pair of winning Rugby World Cup finals.

In that time, he would have crouched, touched, paused and engaged many thousands of times so the great Os knows more about scrummaging than most.

It was while watching yet another scrum collapsing and having to be reset (pick a game, pick a venue, there would have been many) I was reminded of an instructive conversation I had with Du Randt during last year's World Cup.

"One thing that would greatly improve the stability of the scrum would be to have handles on the props' jerseys," said Du Randt.

Handles on the props' jerseys? Yes, he explained. "The looseheads are required to reach out and bind, or grip, onto their opponent, but with the jerseys as tight as they are these days it is almost impossible to catch hold properly.

"So why not have special hand-holds built into the jerseys so there's something to get a grip of? It would help the props a great deal, stop a lot of the sliding down and collapsing and be of great assistance to referees because they would easily be able to differentiate between a legal engagement and someone trying to slip the bind."

Why not, indeed? Given the current outcry over yet another set of adaptations to the laws that seem to be having the opposite effect to what was intended, one wonders whether the lawmakers have ever thought to involve someone like Du Randt in how to make the scrum better?

The opening rounds of the Super 15 have accentuated my contention that constant tinkering with the laws has resulted in a hybrid form of the game that is far removed from the spirit of the laws.

There must surely be something very wrong when two teams of fulltime professionals - the Lions and the Cheetahs - are punished at the rate of a penalty nearly every third minute as Mark Lawrence was forced to do in the opening round.

This is no reflection on Lawrence, who is one of the better officials in the game - rather that the law or, more correctly, the interpretation of it, is faulty.

One of the biggest early-season problems is a new phenomenon in dealing with a breakdown. Referees were instructed, one thought, to come down hard on players going off their feet but have, instead, been laying down a pattern that gives the attacking side all rights to the ball.

The ball carrier makes contact, goes to ground and two teammates on either side of him invariably also go to ground as they move in to seal off the ball. The defenders have a slim chance of nicking the ball and if they don't get it at first bite, are invariably pinned for "not supporting their body weight".

The attackers, meanwhile, are off their feet and playing the ball with their hands (illegally, according to the law), with the result that the defenders stop contesting the ruck and simply fan out to await the next charge; usually off-side ahead of the hindmost foot. The field is cluttered with bodies and there is no space in which to attack.

These are just two areas of concern. A proper overhaul of the laws is required, with lawmakers returning to the guiding principle that the game should be "a fair contest for the ball."

At the moment, there are far too many anomalies, too much left to the discretion of referees and no clear understanding of what can and can't be done.

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