It’s not at all on the same scale as what went on in Alan Turing’s Bletchley Park, which may well have helped to shorten the second World War by several years. Nonetheless, it is indeed an enigma.
The scrum is broken. And World Rugby have come up with nothing to fix it, no law trial that attempts to resolve this calamitous set-piece, to make it a lot safer. While referees should choose sanctions, rather than resets, that doesn’t solve the problem. Sadly, there seems to be no appetite to address it.
But how can it continue to be ignored? World Cup-winning prop Steven Kitshoff recently escaped death by all of 2mm. Your tape measure will tell you just how infinitesimal that is. Someone, somewhere, must recognise there is now a duty to act. It’s a grave error to turn a blind eye in the mistaken belief that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. Until it does.
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The lineout, unlike the scrum, is not broken. Nevertheless, those same people, sitting at the top table, have done some tinkering, coming up with a law trial that is very likely to do damage.
So, when the ball is thrown crooked into a lineout, match officials are now instructed not to call it, unless the opposition make a genuine attempt to compete. In other words, a proper jumping pod, with at least two players, a lifter and a jumper. We are told this will benefit continuity of play, and encourage the non-throwing-in team to compete.
It is completely counterintuitive, and pure farce that a team have to perform a futile exercise to benefit from an infringement by their opponents. Where else – in any sport – does that happen?
Many, many moons ago, it was agreed that a little latitude would be given for scrum throw-ins. Soon enough it became the same old story, an inch was given and a mile was taken. The lineout can’t be allowed to morph into a similar black comedy.
The players in this artificial jumping pod are far more useful staying on the ground, getting ready to defend a subsequent maul. Or, to defend a dynamic attack.
Here’s an instance. The throw goes to the back of the lineout. It’s straight all right, in one way, but it is down the thrower’s own side, which qualifies as crooked. The defence put a jumper up, which should mean that they get the scrum option from the referee, but it’s not whistled. These “own side” throws too often escape justice, that’s been going on for quite a while and presents another problem for this trial.
The attacking team play hard and fast, making a try-scoring break tight to the 15m line, where there’s a huge hole in the defence. That’s a hole that could well have been filled by the members of the pod. But they were busy elsewhere.
The thrower’s feet were in the field of play, par for the course nowadays. No need to sanction, it’s a simple tidy-up job. More importantly, the assistants must insist ?the throw is taken from the right place, rather than allow the thrower to stand opposite his own team, the ball going directly to his jumper from there. Instead, curiously, there are times when the assistant himself is seen moving to stand behind the repositioned thrower, rather than recalling him to the correct mark.
Another ruse that has cropped up is throwing the ball in very quickly, directly to a player at number two or three in the lineout. There is no time whatsoever for the opposition to react, to get a jumper up. That is play-on under this ill-conceived idea.
It’s fairly obvious that this trial further reduces the number of scrums, but not by much. While few crooked throw-ins are called each match, sometimes none, a suspicious mind might well think such a reduction is all part of the plot.
Both teams must form up in a single line, half a metre from the mark of touch, that’s what it says in the book. Yet we see players, having arrived for their throw, being allowed to remain outside the lineout, only stepping into their positions as the ball is about to be thrown. It’s clearly advantageous. The opposition, not knowing where the jumpers will be, have little or no time to organise themselves and to make a contest of it.
Elite coaches know the laws inside out, pushing them to their limits, and beyond, to gain every advantage possible. It’s annoying but, I suppose, understandable. Lord knows, over time, what trickery they’ll come up with on this proposal. It is far from equitable, and needs urgent binning, or it won’t be long before the lineout becomes unrecognisable. Just like the scrum.
As I am writing, there are voices in my head that sound very like my Australian cousins. They are urging me not to split hairs, not to be so damn fussy. Well, my answer to them is that a precision, compass-like approach is not necessary; but that clear and obvious crooked throws must be sanctioned, including those that go down a team’s own side.
World Rugby’s well written charter of the game speaks of the high importance of the contest for possession, including at scrums and lineouts, which are key characteristics of the game. The scrum needs urgent surgery, as did Kitshoff. And the lineout needs to have its structure restored and respected. Sooner, rather than later, would be good.
