Scrum half feeding!

[wardy]

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum on this forum but Serin, the French 9, has taken this 'talent' to a whole new level. He's not even feeding the second row, it goes straight to the 8, and nothing at all is done about it. Serin has been doing this the whole of the Six Nations. Since Wayne Barnes is sir in the middle today I expected him to be on it but no. You might as well do away with scrums as the opposing hooker has absolutely no chance of a strike against the head. Note Eddie Jones discarded OTY because he said he couldn't hook but the ability to hook is irrelevant when Serin is playing. Even Guirado is redundant.

[Noddy555]

Yes ad Nauseum but you must continue to complain as scrums are becoming more and more like Rugby League scrums which a friend of mine who is an avid St,. Helens supporter says are a non-entity and should be scrapped altogether in favour of some other way of restarting the game. Thankfully we in Union have not quite yet reached that stage, but refs must continue to crack down and punish Scrum halves.

[DickyP]

Wardy - don't blame you for raising the matter again - it's a silly situation. Silly because refs could nip it in the bud if they penalised it twice at the beginning of a game: once 9s know it will be penalised then the practice will cease.

Also once hookers have to hook then the scrums will sort themselves out!

[Old Hob]

Agree Dicky, either scrums are a contest or the ball is just given to one side to kick and go. I prefer a contest. And surely a certain P. Wheeler may give a few tips if proper hooking is revived?

[Yorkshire man]

This part of the game is now at something of an hiatus. There is the problem of feeding, and the problem of completed scrums, or scrums being reset time and again. We now even see the situation where once the ball has been secured in the scrum the front rows are going down and the referees are allowing the ball to be played. The refs have a difficult and unenviable task to deal with. At least half of the penalties you see given at scrum time could easily have gone the other way. It is time for the law makers to set in stone what they expect from the scrum as a method of restarting the game. If they decide that we stick with the scrum, as I think they should, they must then decide what constitutes a completed scrum from the point where the ball is put in to the point where it emerges and play continues. Whichever way they decide to go the officials must take positive action when things don't go quite right.

The game as a spectacle can be ruined by scrums being reset time and again, but also by the scrum not being a contest because of feeding. Its time the position was dealt with.

[Iain]

One school of thought is that it makes the game safer, since the scrum can be over quicker. But.....

If put ins were straight, hookers would have to hook.

If hookers had to hook, they wouldn't be pushing.

If they weren't pushing, they wouldn't necessarily need to be as big as props like they've become.

If they didn't need to be big, we could start to lose this fixation of bulking players up.

If we lost the fixation of bulking players up, we'd have less injuries and less big impacts. Therefore making the game safer.



The other school of thought is that it allows the scrum to be over quicker, creating cleaner ball. But...

If put ins were straight, hookers would have to hook.

If hookers had to hook, they wouldn't be pushing.

If they weren't pushing, there'd be less strain on the scrum.

If there was less strain on the scrum, there would be better ball and fewer resets/penalties. Therefore making the scrum cleaner and providing cleaner ball.



Tl;dr:
It is really important that crooked feeds are penalised again, since ignoring it is stopping the things that World Rugby want to happen from happening.

[strawclearer]

One school of thought is that it makes the game safer, since the scrum can be over quicker. But.....

If put ins were straight, hookers would have to hook....etc etc

A perfect example of where a 'like' button would be useful!

[Robespierre]

Yorkshire Man in his post hits the nail on the head.
For the spectator, the perpetual collapsing and resetting of the scrum is so annoying, particularly towards the end of a game when the side leading does whatever it can to prevent play to continue. I find myself shouting and screaming at the telly (my psychiatrist is exactly the same!!).

A straight feed to the scrum is imperative if the game is going to evolve in the right direction and give the opposition a chance to pinch the ball. And I've noticed that the ball often stays at the feet of the second row and no effort is made to channel the ball as quickly as possible.
Unless World Rugby (Bill Beaumont, if you're reading this - and I'm sure you are, sir!) does something to sort this out, and it must, or our game will go backwards at a rate of knots.

[ElvastonTiger]

Prince Philip to Nigel Owens last week. 'When are you going to sort out the scrum feed'.
It was in The a Times so it must be true.

[GETHIN EXILE]

the other change needed is not to allow the hooker to strike for the ball before it is in the scrum. I regularly notice that the hooker has his legs forward to protect the feed.
I'll admit it is a long time since I learned the game but we were taught that the props supported the hooker so that he could jump both feet forward as the ball came in to drag it back and that he was likely to get kicked as he did so as both hookers would strike for the ball!!

[Big Dai]

Our scrum half likes steak and chips.