As resident scrum guru, Tight Head brings you some insight on The Dark Art of the FRONT ROW.
There has been some understandable concern about the scrum performance of the Boks last Saturday.
Peter De Villiers has acknowledged that the coaching team will have to pay attention to the scrum this week in their preparation for meeting the Aussies in Brisbane.
All Bok fans will look forward to seeing a much improved scrumming performance in Brisbane.
Let’s try and remove some of the mystery from the so called, “dark art of the front row” and examine some good basic scrumming principles that we as fans should be looking for this coming Saturday:
A pack that is able to scrum low, yet in a technically correct manner is most efficient.
The height at which you scrum is determined by the level that YOU set at the hit, not that of your opponents.
Tight binding by all eight players is vital.
A straight back body position, with legs set back at the optimum angle is a must for all eight players.
A well timed eight man shove is the key to setting the platform.
Loose forwards make no contribution to the scrum if their shoulder is not attached to the scrum and their heads are in the air.
With the ground as an anchor, power is generated in the legs and transferred through the body into the neck and shoulders where it needs to be delivered together as a pack at the right time.
These are some of the basics of good scrumming and represent the first non negotiable steps towards building a solid platform. Each one of these steps is perfected by the application of good technique and practise.
Totally aside from the above is the man on man battle in the front row. The ascendancy of the pack is set at this coalface. At the highest level of the game technique and mental attitude become the most determining factors in this battle.
Some points to look out for this Saturday are as follows:
All three players tightly bound and hitting in together at the same level.
The loose head binding under the opposition arm and getting under the tight head.
The tight head binding over the opposition arm and transferring power down and through the loose head.
The hooker scrumming with his legs back in a scrumming position on the opposition ball and scrumming together with his tight head on this ball.
Once again these are some basic pointers to setting the correct platform at scrum time in the front row.
There is more technique in this area than anywhere else in rugby, and we can examine some of that after watching the Boks scrum in Brisbane this Saturday.
So let’s keep these basics in mind when we watch and remember high is bad and low is good!!
@Puma – After getting the invite from Carol to join here – I asked if anyone had contacted you yet!!! LOL
@Irish Devil – 30
Yes Munster is my team in the NH. So will be supporting them 100% mate.
@Irish Devil – 31
It took me forever to find this blog on the net. Read it was Rugby-Talk but it just never came up. Finally someone posted the full address on the other blog and I got it.
Nice blog GBS and ED has going here.
@Irish Devil – 31
Good of Carol to get you onto this blog Irish. She is doing here work well 😆
The Bok pack is very experienced. It’s not the heaviest pack but they are big, strong guys and they have played together for yonks. It really doesn’t make a lot of sense that they are a) being outscrummed by an Ozzie pack in scrums that run to completion, or b) pressured into scrum penalties by that pack.
The explanations I have seen have been weak. Is it a problem with talent? Technique? Practice? Attitude? Tactical priority?
FWIW I believe that PdV would prefer a 10% improvement in the lineout than a 10% improvement in the scrum.
35@funkyzoo – Hello
Welcome to the site.
Hi there GBS. Good job to all for getting it going.
37@funkyzoo – Thanks !
Must say, we are going great guns here… far above initial expectations… and it will only get better….
Is their really all the need for worry ? A good scrum like the Boks have doesnt become bad overnight just cause of a few penalties and incidents in a few games. I get the feeling people are starting to think John Smit has been “found out” at top level cause of 2 games against the Ozzies. Remember all the worry that he would struggle against the Lions – I think he held his own quite nicely and if memory serves correctly (getting old so cant be sure) the Boks did OK in the front row against the Lions – ask Mr Vickery how it feels to be seeing his poephole at every scrum. Martin Johnson said when you scrum against the Boks the only thing going through your mind is your spine and it probarbly still holds true.
I think the Ozzies have a streetwise coach who has taught them to play the ref pretty well…the Ozzies are good at this, remember Bill Young who managed to con the world into believing he was a world class prop for a few years. They will suck any advantage that can be had out of a situation by twisting, boring in, holding on the hit etc
The Ozzies put a doubt in Lawrences mind and thats why he became erratic in his judgement and started blowing against us. I would not be surprised if a more experienced ref like Kaplan or Alain Rolland would see it differently and blow the Wallabies up for something Lawrence has missed.
@Mieliepapmike –
Adam Jones sorted Beast out pretty quickly. It looked like Beast had found a trick to delay Vickery’s bind, and it didn’t work with Jones (or in subsequent matches against Vickery).
The Ozzie pack in the last Trinations test was an inexperienced pack. When the ref did not blow us up they were generally pushing us backwards and sideways, and then we also got blown up by the ref for reasons no-one understands.
I think what is happening is that SA coaches have decided to simply hold serve on scrums, and invest our time in optimising lineouts, breakdowns, defensive structures, attacking moves, rolling malls etc.
Scrum dominance does not seem to be on the priority list.
I suppose you should play to your strengths and the scrum probarbly only needs another 2 or 3 % and it’ll click. Jones probarbly only had 8 or 9 scrums against Beast and was hardly dominant. It would be interesting to see how teams try and win the opportunity to put in to scrums against the Boks especially in our half of the field.It seems we are strong in most areas that unless we knock on they shouldnt have any scrums awarded. We knock on when we try and run the ball hence we kick ! As the Meerkat says…Simples.
As I say another ref could see it totally differently and ping the opposition.
Former Welsh prop Craig Horseman is retraining as a ref – keen to see how he handles scrumtimes but I suspect he might not be quick enough to crack it at the very top level.
That was a really good article, I now know a lot more about scrumming. Thankyou
Tighthead.
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