KEY POINTS:
This week's mission? To explain the workings of the scrum and the current dominance of this All Black team.
I could write a book on it. Many things have changed in rugby. Rucking isn't too popular these days, lineouts are now about lifting, but scrums are pretty much
the same as they have been for years.
I learned the art from Peter Whiting, the premier All Black lock of the 1970s, when I was a fourth former at Auckland Grammar. Whiting had just returned from a four-month tour of the United Kingdom and France with the All Blacks.
At this time, All Black scrummaging was at a very low ebb. Gone were the Ken Grays and Wilson Whinerays of the 1960s. The replacements were incredibly strong, but lacked any real technique.
Whiting told the story of the menacing 120kg Keith Murdoch being bent backwards several times in the Welsh test on that tour by a 95kg fatty at scrum time.
Whiting learned the art and gladly passed it on to anyone prepared to listen. Most weren't.
Sometime later, I recall attending a New Zealand Rugby Union coaching clinic, aimed at teaching professional coaches the art. Those attending included the likes of Graham Henry and Laurie Mains, present and past All Black coaches.
Before I spoke, an old guy called "Snow" White stood up. I remember thinking, 'What would he know about it?" I soon found out. Once "Snow" had finished, I got up and had to admit I agreed with everything he had said (for those too young to remember, White played more games for Auckland than any other player - 196 - over 14 years, and was an All Black in 1953-55, playing four tests).
So why is this All Black team so much better at the scrum than any other right now? It has a lot to do with Mike Cron, the scrum doctor who has taken the technique of the scrum to new levels of accuracy while still maintaining the same basic principles of the past.
While others have sought to devise intricate grips and body positions, Cron has kept things simple, but he demands accuracy and attention to detail.
When Cron first worked with the All Blacks he was a tough taskmaster.
Any props collapsing a scrum had to do a pile of pushups. It was not long before scrums stopped collapsing.
The most important figure is the tighthead prop. He is the anchor on whom the others rely. Ideally, your tighthead should engage fractionally before the other two front-rowers.
Have an average tighthead and you have an average scrum. His job is to make the scrum stable on his team's feed and wreak havoc on the opposition's ball.
To achieve this he requires not only great strength but the balance and dexterity of a ballet dancer. Minimal foot movement and a thigh-to-calf-leg angle of approximately 120 degrees are essential to provide the platform for an explosive shunt.
Watch Carl Hayman against the Wallabies tomorrow night.
His hips will rarely be lower than his shoulders on the scrum engagement, and such is his balance and strength he rarely collapses.
If a tighthead can push up half a metre on his side of the scrum it's worth about three metres, or maybe two seconds, to help a Rodney So'oialo move from the back of the scrum to get over the advantage line - and even more to the backs.
The loosehead prop has to provide the bridge for the hooker and needs to work on the opposition tighthead trying to unsettle his platform, feet and leg angle.
Tony Woodcock is an expert at looking innocent at the engagement, and is rarely detected by the referee for pushing in sideways after the front rows have hit. That's all down to superb gamesmanship and subtlety.
The best way to crush an opposing scrum is to have a two-on-one situation, for example, the tighthead and hooker working together and attacking the opposing hooker from both sides and underneath. They put a squeeze on him so he thinks his ribs are coming through his spine. This leads to physical and mental wreckage in the opposing scrum.
The ideal place to attack is around the hooker. The best I played with was Sean Fitzpatrick. He was incredibly strong, but slim in the hips and flexible.
For years the Canterbury teams we played used heavy hookers, usually broad of beam.
We would wait for their hooker to strike, which usually disrupted their tighthead and locks by the swivel of his hips. The result? Invariably, carnage for them and success based on ruthless efficiency for us.
The front row's job is to give the remaining five forwards the chance to maximise their energy. This means a firm hit and maybe as little as 15cm over the gain line.
Most scrums are won and lost at the setup and on the hit. This has been complicated by the requirement on safety grounds for the referees to announce the engagement in a four-step procedure: crouch, touch, pause, engage.
When the pressure comes on, the mentally weak either go to ground or pop up looking for fresh air. The real artists dig in, take the pressure through lowering the knees, keeping the hips below the shoulders and wait for the other guy to crack first.
One other point: the current All Black front row also fit the ideal heights for the three positions.
The tighthead should be slightly taller than the hooker, and the loosehead should be the shortest of the three.
The Australians seem quite excited about their improving scrum.
Woodcock, Anton Oliver and Hayman - and I include Keven Mealamu in this as the hooking alternative - are in my book the best exponents of the art I've seen in years.
Sport's finest often look as if they are doing nothing special but consistently get the better of their opponents. It's no different in the front-row game.
* John Drake played eight tests for the All Blacks as tighthead prop.
