Live scrums get heave-ho

The Lions have abandoned the idea of live scrummaging at training for the rest of the tour.

Old-time front rowers will be spluttering into their cornflakes at the news. For decades the prevailing view has been that scrum machines are all very well, but you don't get a real feel for how your scrum is performing unless you're rubbing up against skin and bone.

Having a trainer tell you the dial is showing X kilograms of pressure is being applied means nothing to the gnarled veterans of the game.

But the downside is that the testosterone-laden area of the game, where the macho desire to best your team-mate can lead to punchups, or worse accidents in training.

All Blacks have traded blows at training, most memorably Ron Williams and Andy Earl in Wales in 1989.

Lions assistant coach Gareth Jenkins acknowledged that live scrummaging had been part of touring life in the past but "the past is the past. We've taken a view that ... we'll grow ourselves in the environment we're working in now".

When he was told that some of his props might have a different view, Jenkins was unmoved.

"It's about what we think is the best way we'll grow the tour," he said.