Rugby: Clear message over scrums

This is what referees' boss Paddy O'Brien wants to avoid at the World Cup, continuous breakdowns at scrum time. Photo / Getty Images

Only one message will be given to the 10-man World Cup referee panel - take control of the scrums and don't let them ruin the tournament.

International referee boss Paddy O'Brien is confident the game is vastly improved from 2009.

Where once the tackler had all the rights; the offside line was virtually ignored and the ambitious were penalised for trying to keep the ball in hand; rugby again affords teams choice in how they play.

Referees have been steered back to the existing laws and, by enforcing them, rugby has become a game that favours teams who want to play with the ball over those who want to play without it.

But one problem is proving incurable - scrums continue to be a shambles at the highest levels.

The IRB made scrums a priority in 2009 and yet referees are still struggling to deliver the outcome everyone would like. Statistics from the recent Six Nations show a slightly improved picture but a long way from the sort of spectacle fans pay money to watch.

The rate of scrum collapses fell slightly in 2011 compared with 2010 as did the number of re-sets. But the rate of penalties and free kicks awarded at scrums rose, while the total number of times the ball came successfully out of scrums first time fell by comparison.

"It is clear that scrums are an issue," says O'Brien. "We won't be changing anything in terms of the sequence [crouch, touch, pause, engage] before the World Cup. The key is simple - we want to keep a slow tempo to those calls because that is what the coaches agreed to.

"We don't want the World Cup marred by collapsed scrummaging. One of the challenges for referees is to get a better synchronisation of scrum calls but there has to be collective responsibility around this as well. Teams have to adhere to what has been agreed. They have to want to co-operate."

While referees are the usual focus of blame whenever a contest is blighted by re-set scrums, O'Brien makes the valid point that there have been several tests in the last year where the scrummaging was excellent.

For the contest to work and to reduce the influence of the referee, both teams have to want to play within the law. The All Blacks versus England test in November was one of the better scrummaging battles of recent times, despite New Zealand being heavily penalised in the second half.

O'Brien says that the England versus Ireland Six Nations test a few weeks ago was another memorable contest.

"If you look at that game, both teams stayed legal for the duration and it was a really good contest. It gets very tough for referees if one team doesn't want to co-operate. No team ever says they were at fault but there are triggers for referees to look out for.

"As a basic principle, the tighthead always has to bind on to the body of the opponent and be square while the loosehead has to be pointing upwards rather than downwards [before the engagement]."

Where O'Brien and the rest of the world want to see consistent improvement before and during the World Cup is in the way referees react when they encounter a team that won't co-operate. There have been occasions where the Wallabies, in particular, have been able to dodge a scrummaging contest and also avoid being heavily penalised for it.

No one wants referees guessing or ignoring scrummaging issues until the closing stages and then doing something about them. What O'Brien wants is for the World Cup panel to have clear strategies on how to deal with problems.

As long as they are consistent and deal with problems early, he says, then teams can have no cause for complaint if they are penalised late in the game for scrum infringements that end up affecting the outcome.