Engaging at the Scrum
Hey Peeps!
Well I'm a little overdue for a post on the goings on in the World Cup. There has been a lot of games this last week to comment on I will try and keep that portion of this post brief. I actually want to dig into a contentious issue that has been floating around for quite some time...years actually. But before I get into that...let's just talk for one moment about some of the poignant games this last week...
Australia vs. Ireland (9-15 for IRE) - wow...right? Wow. Australia played like poo. I think both t
eams walked away with some points that needed to get worked on. AUS was missing Pocock, Moore and Ioane which are big ones for them considering that Paloto-Nau can't throw a ball straight and is a magnetic for injuries. IRE was also missing some key players too. AUS did not play with intensity and Cooper, again, made some terrible tactical decisions. Granted, he made some key kicks and plays that kept the score from being worse than what you see above but I don't know if 3 or 4 great plays can make up for an overall poor performance. A couple of my favourite moments were 1. When Genia got picked up and driven back from a scrum like 15 yards...he looked like a little ragdoll and 2. When Quade Cooper got dump tackled. IRE's scrum was amazing (Healey!!) and just put AUS' to shame. I wouldn't be surprised if we some position shifts on the Wallabies for their next big game.
Canada vs France (19-46) - well that score, if you didn't watch the game sounds a lot more devastating than it was. If you watched the game - you'd be one hell of a proud Canadian. Rugby is far, FAR from being one of our proudly represented and supported games and our boys put up a serious figh
t in what should have been a bloodbath. France only led by seven at the half and were only a few points ahead at the 70 minute mark due to a couple of drop kicks by Canada's Monro. I'm not going to lie, I am an All Blacks supporter. I'm not Kiwi by any stretch of the truth - Canada's rugby politics have left a bitter taste in my mouth but I can't deny the courage and determination they showed this last weekend. At 70 minutes I was on the edge of my seat believing that we had a chance to do the impossible. It was truly the last 5 minutes of the first half and the last 8 minutes of the second half that did us in. You could see our boys tire visibly and France converted 2 tries within 8 minutes of the end of the game. That sealed it but Canada walked away with a few more eyes watching and believing that our country can produce more than just a second rate performance.
Samoa vs. Wales (17-10) - This was my disappointment of the weekend. I wanted/needed Sa
moa to beat Wales to ensure a place in the knock out rounds. There's still a chance but it's going to be a lot harder to achieve because now it's not just based on winning each game. It will depend on the bonus points. Samoa was lacking the ferocity in the contact area. I didn't see the massive hits and defense that punched up hard. Wales, a slighter team seemed to get through the Samoan defensive line with little punishment. I guess we will see what they are worth in the back half of the pool games.
Teams to watch: USA & Italy. Hands down they are the surprise team for me. I didn't expect them to put as much down on the field as they have. I suppose if I weren't Canada - I would say Canada. But for pride alone, I don't think that they have the heart to lose to Japan now. But if the US could put it to AUS and deny them a bonus point so that Italy can beat AUS...Oh my gosh - that would be the upset of the tournament. Also - if Samoa could somehow come back from their defeat from Wales and beat South Africa...massive, massive upset but not impossible.
Games to watch this weekend: France and New Zealand. Is there any other game to watch? Oh - Argentina and Scotland (if they Scots aren't careful...they could end up in a pile of trouble!). And USA and AUS ... if AUS needed to rest players USA could surprise them and steal a needed bonus point.
On to other news...
The scrum.
It all started about 4 or 5 years ago when the IRB (International Rugby Board) decided that it wanted to address spinal and concussion injuries in rugby. A noble and right task for a governing body that controls all Rugby Union laws and teams in the world. There was a drive for coaches to start hammering "better body position" into all athlete's heads. "BBP" could be heard on sidelines around the world. I'm not saying that it is bad or shouldn't happen - I'm just saying that it caught on quickly. It slowed down (or for most teams) how we taught tackling, how we taught the contact point, rucks, mauls, scrums - everything. Not only did BBP change how we ran practices but it also shone a light on scrums. The IRB attacked the scrum point and all the things that were seemingly flawed there.
It's one of the areas that the World Cup Officials were specifically asked to target during the tournament. No dropping bind
s, no touching of the heads in the front row, and no driving the other team up or down (purposely collapsing the scrum). None of which, save for one (no touching heads...that's ridiculous - but we'll get to that in a minute), are bad things to enforce. The dropping of the binds gets a little tedious to enforce because sometimes that's all you need to do as a prop is to steady yourself - and hanging on for dear life so that you don't get a penalty does end you up in a head-below-hips position...which is illegal...do you see where this is going?
Scrums collapsing was probably the easiest place to attack. There are a number of different reasons for it...
1. Props being too far away or too close to the mark/opposing prop.
2. Dropping of the binds or illegal placement of the binds.
3. Early engagement.
4. Not driving straight or driving front rows up.
I do think that something needed to be done. More at the top international levels than found at university or premier level rugby in our Canadian leagues - scrumming was getting dangerous. Granted - those guys train significantly more than the rest of us lowly players. They KNOW what they're doing, which is perhaps why the IRB went at them...if they know what they're doing when they collapse then the spinal injuries are going to be more catastrophic.
What was their solution?
Back it up. Slow it down. Become anal.
Front rows' response worldwide? You've got to be ... joking me.
So...step by step...
1. Back it Up - The IRB had us (I'm speaking as a tighthead prop) back our scrums up so that we could only reach
across with a straight arm to touch the prop across from us. If we could touch heads (which was my favourite thing to do to the other prop was to rub her forehead before we engaged...not illegal but it certainly drove the other prop nuts. In the pros, props were actually cracking their heads on the other prop...sometimes - which leads to concussion/spinal injuries). This wasn't the worst law that was brought in. I missed being able to annoy the other prop and depending on the ref, you could often set up a little closer without too much trouble from the ref. HOWEVER - One of the problems this created was this...if you even slightly lost your footing - collapse is unavoidable. I don't actually think that this law really decreased the rate of scrum collapse...I just think it CHANGED how we collapse. A little six/half dozen if you ask me.
2. Slow it Down - If you ever want to hear me rant on something...ask me about the Official's Scrum Cadence ("Crouch-Touch-Pause-Engage"). First of all - those IRB RWC Officials might have perfect cadence but club rugby and high school officials DO NOT!! There's nothing worse that trying to get the rhythm of the ca
dence so that you can compete and win your scrums than to have a pissy official who can't do their cadence evenly...to too slowly. Here me on this...Slowing down the cadence does not make a safer scrum. You are asking two people to hold back 80% of their pack's weight while the Ref has a leisurely count-off and then you're expecting the props to have perfect binding position and keep it while they're being compressed by both larger ends of it.
So let's speak in terms of the pros. On average, the total pack weight of 890kg. Some are as low as 880 and I've seen a couple packs that have nearly hit 900kilos. That's a lot of weight. So we're saying that two props (the hooker kind of counts) need to hold back about 650kilos for about 10seconds while the Ref goes through his cadence...that's IF he makes it through his cadence and doesn't make them reset. That's like going down into a deep squat for 10seconds and then powering out of it. And these guys do it about 70 times in a game!
I think if the "Pause" was removed it would make a bit of difference. I think there's validity in the touching motion of the cadence. It allows the referee to see distance but the speed at which they run it is just ridiculous.
3. Get Anal. Well - they have. You've got all these referees running around making calls about an area they have no idea about. There's play in it - front row players are some of your grittiest players on the field. As much as your rucks are the trenches on a rugby field - your props and hookers are not only the ones fighting in them, they're the ones that dug those trenches. So the officials have resorted to picking on binds, touching heads, and dropping shoulders below hips (the latter being the most serious).
So what's to do with it then? Being a front row player - the scrum is a very important aspect of the game. One that should never be done away with...if you hate it - go play League. Decreasing the number of restarts by being more strict with penalties (should be broken arm penalties too...keep the number of penalty kicks down), handing out penalty tries for repeated infractions at the 5m, and officiate from a place of understanding with the front rows! The IRB and officials should have to go through what it is to scrum from a front row's perspective. Understand what it is to have someone drive in on the angle, the difference between binds on the back and on the arm and dropping binds, what it feels like to restart, restart, restart and what it feels like to hold back 600kilos of humans! I think that there needs to be consistency in officiating and that officials should have to face judicial hearings for poor performances in all aspects of the game.
Those are my thoughts...atleast on something I know lots about...
Bear
Well I'm a little overdue for a post on the goings on in the World Cup. There has been a lot of games this last week to comment on I will try and keep that portion of this post brief. I actually want to dig into a contentious issue that has been floating around for quite some time...years actually. But before I get into that...let's just talk for one moment about some of the poignant games this last week...
Australia vs. Ireland (9-15 for IRE) - wow...right? Wow. Australia played like poo. I think both t
eams walked away with some points that needed to get worked on. AUS was missing Pocock, Moore and Ioane which are big ones for them considering that Paloto-Nau can't throw a ball straight and is a magnetic for injuries. IRE was also missing some key players too. AUS did not play with intensity and Cooper, again, made some terrible tactical decisions. Granted, he made some key kicks and plays that kept the score from being worse than what you see above but I don't know if 3 or 4 great plays can make up for an overall poor performance. A couple of my favourite moments were 1. When Genia got picked up and driven back from a scrum like 15 yards...he looked like a little ragdoll and 2. When Quade Cooper got dump tackled. IRE's scrum was amazing (Healey!!) and just put AUS' to shame. I wouldn't be surprised if we some position shifts on the Wallabies for their next big game.Canada vs France (19-46) - well that score, if you didn't watch the game sounds a lot more devastating than it was. If you watched the game - you'd be one hell of a proud Canadian. Rugby is far, FAR from being one of our proudly represented and supported games and our boys put up a serious figh
t in what should have been a bloodbath. France only led by seven at the half and were only a few points ahead at the 70 minute mark due to a couple of drop kicks by Canada's Monro. I'm not going to lie, I am an All Blacks supporter. I'm not Kiwi by any stretch of the truth - Canada's rugby politics have left a bitter taste in my mouth but I can't deny the courage and determination they showed this last weekend. At 70 minutes I was on the edge of my seat believing that we had a chance to do the impossible. It was truly the last 5 minutes of the first half and the last 8 minutes of the second half that did us in. You could see our boys tire visibly and France converted 2 tries within 8 minutes of the end of the game. That sealed it but Canada walked away with a few more eyes watching and believing that our country can produce more than just a second rate performance.Samoa vs. Wales (17-10) - This was my disappointment of the weekend. I wanted/needed Sa
moa to beat Wales to ensure a place in the knock out rounds. There's still a chance but it's going to be a lot harder to achieve because now it's not just based on winning each game. It will depend on the bonus points. Samoa was lacking the ferocity in the contact area. I didn't see the massive hits and defense that punched up hard. Wales, a slighter team seemed to get through the Samoan defensive line with little punishment. I guess we will see what they are worth in the back half of the pool games.Teams to watch: USA & Italy. Hands down they are the surprise team for me. I didn't expect them to put as much down on the field as they have. I suppose if I weren't Canada - I would say Canada. But for pride alone, I don't think that they have the heart to lose to Japan now. But if the US could put it to AUS and deny them a bonus point so that Italy can beat AUS...Oh my gosh - that would be the upset of the tournament. Also - if Samoa could somehow come back from their defeat from Wales and beat South Africa...massive, massive upset but not impossible.
Games to watch this weekend: France and New Zealand. Is there any other game to watch? Oh - Argentina and Scotland (if they Scots aren't careful...they could end up in a pile of trouble!). And USA and AUS ... if AUS needed to rest players USA could surprise them and steal a needed bonus point.
On to other news...
The scrum.
It all started about 4 or 5 years ago when the IRB (International Rugby Board) decided that it wanted to address spinal and concussion injuries in rugby. A noble and right task for a governing body that controls all Rugby Union laws and teams in the world. There was a drive for coaches to start hammering "better body position" into all athlete's heads. "BBP" could be heard on sidelines around the world. I'm not saying that it is bad or shouldn't happen - I'm just saying that it caught on quickly. It slowed down (or for most teams) how we taught tackling, how we taught the contact point, rucks, mauls, scrums - everything. Not only did BBP change how we ran practices but it also shone a light on scrums. The IRB attacked the scrum point and all the things that were seemingly flawed there.
It's one of the areas that the World Cup Officials were specifically asked to target during the tournament. No dropping bind
s, no touching of the heads in the front row, and no driving the other team up or down (purposely collapsing the scrum). None of which, save for one (no touching heads...that's ridiculous - but we'll get to that in a minute), are bad things to enforce. The dropping of the binds gets a little tedious to enforce because sometimes that's all you need to do as a prop is to steady yourself - and hanging on for dear life so that you don't get a penalty does end you up in a head-below-hips position...which is illegal...do you see where this is going?Scrums collapsing was probably the easiest place to attack. There are a number of different reasons for it...
1. Props being too far away or too close to the mark/opposing prop.
2. Dropping of the binds or illegal placement of the binds.
3. Early engagement.
4. Not driving straight or driving front rows up.
I do think that something needed to be done. More at the top international levels than found at university or premier level rugby in our Canadian leagues - scrumming was getting dangerous. Granted - those guys train significantly more than the rest of us lowly players. They KNOW what they're doing, which is perhaps why the IRB went at them...if they know what they're doing when they collapse then the spinal injuries are going to be more catastrophic.
What was their solution?
Back it up. Slow it down. Become anal.
Front rows' response worldwide? You've got to be ... joking me.
So...step by step...
1. Back it Up - The IRB had us (I'm speaking as a tighthead prop) back our scrums up so that we could only reach
across with a straight arm to touch the prop across from us. If we could touch heads (which was my favourite thing to do to the other prop was to rub her forehead before we engaged...not illegal but it certainly drove the other prop nuts. In the pros, props were actually cracking their heads on the other prop...sometimes - which leads to concussion/spinal injuries). This wasn't the worst law that was brought in. I missed being able to annoy the other prop and depending on the ref, you could often set up a little closer without too much trouble from the ref. HOWEVER - One of the problems this created was this...if you even slightly lost your footing - collapse is unavoidable. I don't actually think that this law really decreased the rate of scrum collapse...I just think it CHANGED how we collapse. A little six/half dozen if you ask me.2. Slow it Down - If you ever want to hear me rant on something...ask me about the Official's Scrum Cadence ("Crouch-Touch-Pause-Engage"). First of all - those IRB RWC Officials might have perfect cadence but club rugby and high school officials DO NOT!! There's nothing worse that trying to get the rhythm of the ca
dence so that you can compete and win your scrums than to have a pissy official who can't do their cadence evenly...to too slowly. Here me on this...Slowing down the cadence does not make a safer scrum. You are asking two people to hold back 80% of their pack's weight while the Ref has a leisurely count-off and then you're expecting the props to have perfect binding position and keep it while they're being compressed by both larger ends of it.So let's speak in terms of the pros. On average, the total pack weight of 890kg. Some are as low as 880 and I've seen a couple packs that have nearly hit 900kilos. That's a lot of weight. So we're saying that two props (the hooker kind of counts) need to hold back about 650kilos for about 10seconds while the Ref goes through his cadence...that's IF he makes it through his cadence and doesn't make them reset. That's like going down into a deep squat for 10seconds and then powering out of it. And these guys do it about 70 times in a game!
I think if the "Pause" was removed it would make a bit of difference. I think there's validity in the touching motion of the cadence. It allows the referee to see distance but the speed at which they run it is just ridiculous.
3. Get Anal. Well - they have. You've got all these referees running around making calls about an area they have no idea about. There's play in it - front row players are some of your grittiest players on the field. As much as your rucks are the trenches on a rugby field - your props and hookers are not only the ones fighting in them, they're the ones that dug those trenches. So the officials have resorted to picking on binds, touching heads, and dropping shoulders below hips (the latter being the most serious).
So what's to do with it then? Being a front row player - the scrum is a very important aspect of the game. One that should never be done away with...if you hate it - go play League. Decreasing the number of restarts by being more strict with penalties (should be broken arm penalties too...keep the number of penalty kicks down), handing out penalty tries for repeated infractions at the 5m, and officiate from a place of understanding with the front rows! The IRB and officials should have to go through what it is to scrum from a front row's perspective. Understand what it is to have someone drive in on the angle, the difference between binds on the back and on the arm and dropping binds, what it feels like to restart, restart, restart and what it feels like to hold back 600kilos of humans! I think that there needs to be consistency in officiating and that officials should have to face judicial hearings for poor performances in all aspects of the game.
Those are my thoughts...atleast on something I know lots about...
Bear
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