Sir, – While reading Jonathan Skerritt (January 3rd) and Conleth Feighery (January 2nd) on the problems of the scrum in modern rugby, it occurred to me that someone had already identified a relatively simple solution. A quick check of the Irish Times archives and there it was: “Need for new scrum engagement sequence” by Matt William (October 29th, 2012).
Matt’s suggestion was that the two opposing front rows should pack down together first. Once the referee was satisfied with their stance and binding, he could signal for the two sets of second-rows to pack down, and then finally the loose forwards.
This would add to the stability of the scrum while also removing the potentially damaging “Engage” (or “Set”) impact.
While it could take a little longer to set the scrum in this manner, if it reduced the number of re-sets and questionable penalties, I think the majority of rugby fans would be perfectly happy.
I wonder did Matt ever send a copy of his piece to the IRB? – Yours, etc,