Rugby: Touch, pause, improve- All Blacks' scrum needs work

The All Black scrums have been ordinary. Photo / Getty Images

The All Black scrum has to sustain the conversion from stable to destructive deeper into the Rugby World Cup. They buckled Japan on Friday, showed more cohesion and better timing, but with all due respect - it was only Japan whose set piece doesn't rank.

Their potential pathway to the title could see them encounter France, Argentina, South Africa and England - scrums that give little away; scrums that fancy themselves; the base from which they win the game.

The All Blacks can live in that company; they can even thrive in that company but their set piece has been strangely troublesome since the end of last year. Equipped with technically proficient, powerful men and directed by one of the great scrummaging experts of the age, Mike Cron, the All Blacks need to get their set piece ship-shape. Things picked up against Japan on Friday night - but the French await; a different test entirely.

Even in this new age of rugby where the tackled ball is critical and everyone plays off turnovers, to have an under-performing scrum will be hugely detrimental to the All Blacks' ambitions.

Graham Henry feels the same way - which is why the forwards spent much of the week leading into the Japan test packing down plenty of scrums. For too long now the All Blacks haven't derived the value from their scrum they have sought.

Somehow they have picked up a reputation with referees for dubious work. The penalty count against them at the scrum has probably been higher in the last 10 months than any other major nation.

Such is the way of these things that opponents have sensed they can get away with murder while referees focus on the men in black - effectively giving the referees a sense of vindication; confidence that they are right to be pinging the All Blacks.

The problems started on the end of season tour in 2010 when England, probably the best scrummaging side in the world, put the All Blacks under genuine pressure in the first leg of the Grand Slam.

The All Blacks were penalised six times at the scrum and, when they travelled up to Edinburgh the following week, they were hammered just about as severely again.

But this is where the story gets a little hard to understand. To be put under pressure by England is fair enough. But by the Scots? Please - they were destroyed by Romania last week and while they are not the bumbling, clueless side they have appeared to be so far this World Cup, they are not one of the better scrummaging sides.

Yet the All Blacks struggled to gain dominance at Murrayfield in November and the same was true when they played Ireland and Wales. The frustration at being unable to persuade referees they were legal on the opposition put-in led forwards coach Steve Hansen to erupt after the last game.

"We are very frustrated with the officiating and we will have to go away and try and move on. The answer is don't put pressure on," said Hansen. "Just let them win their ball. We will stop trying to put pressure on the opposition scrum so they stay up. We want to put pressure on them, but if they fall over all the time, we're getting penalised.

"We are not getting penalised on our own ball, it's only when we put pressure on the opposition ball. We've tried talking to the referees, we've tried everything, but we're not making any headway."

The All Blacks need to be out on the field fixing the problems and no one will work harder than Owen Franks. The 23-year-old is determined to prove he is the real thing at this World Cup.

He feels improvement is just round the corner and that despite the criticism, the All Blacks' scrum efforts have been reasonably solid: "There has been a bit of negativity around our scrum but we have given our backs pretty good ball to play off,"says Franks. "I think just because we are not putting teams away people are looking at our scrum almost as if we are weak. Sometimes you have to cop criticism and that is cool - but it is definitely something we are working hard on."