Categories: Ulster Rugby

Patience with the scrum is running out: it’s time for reform or bust, Robert Kitson

David Paice of London Irish pops up at a scrum during his side’s 28-26 defeat of Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership on Sunday. Photograph: Patrick Khachfe/JMP/REX

Chatting to a renowned former prop forward the other day it did not take long for the vexed subject of the scrum to come up. We are talking here about a long-serving club legend who spent more than half his life in the front row and has forgotten more about scrummaging than most people will ever learn. And guess what? Even he reckons the scrum, in its current form, is a desperate waste of time.

His solution to the endless collapses and boring re-sets was straightforward. The side with the put-in has one minute to get the ball in and away. If there is no decisive resolution, a free-kick is awarded. Re-sets would effectively be outlawed unless props can maintain their footing, stay bound and hold the scrum up. In other words, the game will simply pass them by………. see more at :- http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/jan/13/rugby-union-uncontested-scrums-ospreys-northampton

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