Georgina Robinson of the Sydney Morning Herald, a pleasant lady who sat next to me at Loftus Versfeld during Super Rugby… or was it a Test between the Springboks and Wallabies, wrote an article about Ewen McKenzie, Wallabies coach, complaining bitterly about the unfair treatment the Wallabies scrum gets, due to the perceptions of the quality or lack of quality of Wallaby scums of recent years.
Now understand me clear here, I do not moan over Georgina article, after all she has a duty to report the news when it presents itself – and generally she is a fair lass as far as rugby matters go, in my opinion one of the better rugby scribes from Down Under.
The beef that I have is the smoke and mirrors, the side-show that Ewen McKenzie is trying to conjure up and the smoke he is trying to blow up the IRB and our combined arses, to make up for absolutely woeful Wallaby scrummaging!
We’re going to look at Georgina’s Article in the Sydney Morning Herald first… thereafter we will look at a video clip analising all 17 scrums in the recent Test between England and the Wallabies (a must watch clip) and finally, each will come to his or her own conclusion, mine being to laugh at McKenzie’s antics in disgust and disbelief!
Sydney Morning Herald – Georgina Robinson:
The Wallabies are tackling perceptions of the Australian scrum head-on with a lengthy please-explain submission to the International Rugby Board.
Ewen McKenzie has written to the head of referees after Australia’s 20-13 loss to England at Twickenham last week. The Wallabies coach believes Australia were unfairly penalised throughout the match and that referee George Clancy’s perception of the visitors at the set-piece played a significant role.
“It’s down to matters of consistent interpretation,” McKenzie said. “I haven’t got my mind around the fact that you can win your own scrum ball cleanly and still get seven penalties against you, and [England] get none. It defies some logic there. It’s a matter of opinion and the guy in the middle is closer to the action but I’m just looking to understand that dynamic. We’ll find out when they get back to me.”
The Australian scrum has been its own worst enemy for almost a decade, battling the prevailing view that southern hemisphere teams are inferior scrummagers.
Where the All Blacks have been able to produce performances to turn around the perception, the Wallabies have been less convincing. Their 2007 World Cup quarter-final loss to England, a high-profile set-piece annihilation, has proved hard to shake.
There was progress made across last season under new forwards coach Andrew Blades, but damaging losses to the British and Irish Lions this year have dismantled much of last year’s gains. Even so, McKenzie believes there is more at play than his front row’s competence at scrum time.
“Perception definitely comes into it. If you see a penalty for one thing and then later in the game you see the same thing happen from the other side, but the penalty is still against you, you think ‘what is going on here’,” he said. “Myself and Bladesy look at things in extraordinary detail and we also know the capabilities of the players we’ve got. We know what they’re like at scrum and we also know what they contribute to the total game. Even with [lock Rob Simmons moving to No.6], it will support the scrum and front row, more than detract from it. So we are looking at it from a technical point of view but we have to look at it from an interpretation point of view, because they’re things that are frustrating. The technical part has been improving but how we’re assessed is the area I’m chasing at the moment.”
McKenzie said the Wallabies’ submission had been received and acknowledged at the IRB headquarters in Dublin. “I’ve got to be accountable to the court of public opinion and so does everyone else,” he said.
“I get that the whole business is human and that our players are making mistakes, and so is the opposition, so I don’t expect a perfect outcome in any game, but I do look at the critical moments where things turn around. If you say nothing, nothing happens. It’s more inquisitive than critical, it’s more saying could you explain this so we understand.”
An IRB spokesman said feedback from coaches was standard. “The IRB operates a thorough feedback and performance review process for all Test match appointments, which incorporates coach feedback, the referee’s performance reviewer feedback and feedback from the match officials themselves,” the spokesman said. “It is a standard process and underscores our continued commitment to clear and consistent officiating.”
England vs Wallabies – 2 November 2013
Video clip by Scott Allen – The Roar:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYas0aXtRzU[/youtube]
Summary:
In summation, there is 1 or possibly 2 scrums Ewen McKenzie can possibly feel aggrieved about, but then again it could have been 1 or 2 worse for his Wallaby charges too!
The Wallaby scrum is inferior at this juncture in time, it does not only show now, but has consistently reared it’s ugly head right throughout the 2013 Test season and for that matter in recent years.
My advice to Ewen McKenzie… “Mate, grow a pair…it might stand you in good stead!”
It is really worthwhile looking at the video clip, so do yourselves a favour and watch it.
Very good analysis, thanks
2 @ Just For Kicks:
Very freegin sneaky by Ewen McKenzie, even culpably so, though… eish
Ewen McKenzie is about as useful as a Voorvel on a Jew’s jolly….
You could see the frustration on Steve Hansen’s face, but the All Blacks coach is urging patience as rugby takes the first step towards fixing its glaring scrum problem.
Hansen on Tuesday attended an IRB-initiated conference at Heathrow where the referees bosses and the leading international coaches gathered for a workshop to hammer out the key issues in the game.
Top of that list – and pretty much the only thing demanding urgent change – was the new scrummaging regulations that effectively hand a massive advantage to the team not required to hook the ball.
In a nutshell, rugby has got it almost right with the move away from the thundering hit to a more static engagement process that sets and binds the scrum before the ball comes in.
But the problem appears to be in the regulation requiring the halfback to wait until the referee calls “Yes, 9” before putting the ball in. That forewarns the defending team which is able to then deliver an eight-on-seven shove, as the attacking team’s hooker must cease pushing to hook the ball.
Asked if a fix is at hand – notably a return to allowing the halfback to feed at his discretion – Hansen said: “We will eventually. We’ve just got to be patient.”
The All Blacks coach said the conference wasn’t about instituting immediate change and no “magic wands” were waved. But amongst some robust discussion there was general agreement about a way forward.
“There was some discussion about the referee calling the put-in, and I think there is agreement we will change that at some point. But just when’s the right time is the key. We’ll hear about that in the future.” Hansen felt the gathering of the coaches was extremely worthwhile and should happen more often.
Tweaks to the scrum laws, he felt, would probably come after the northern hemisphere had had a closer look at the existing regulations.
“The whole art of scrummaging has changed. If you won the hit before you won the scrum. We’ve got a scrum now that’s engaging and there’s a whole lot of engaging going on, and if you’re putting the ball in becomes eight against seven, and an obvious advantage to the team not hooking.”
Though you could sense Hansen’s frustration that the fix was moving at a glacial pace, he admitted there was onus on teams and coaches also to play their part in making the new laws work.
And the congress, he said, was an invaluable tool, even if its timing was unfortunate.
“It was important we went and important that group gets together more often. A lot of the laws are made without a lot of consultation with key people actually playing and coaching the game. Final decisions are made by people who used to play a long time ago and sometimes we make the wrong decisions.”
All Blacks rake Keven Mealamu said it’s a massive challenge to be able to hook the ball and still retain enough power to hold off the defending team’s surge.
“You want to be able to hook the ball as quick as you can and get back into the pushing position, and that’s what every hooker is trying to nail at the moment,” he said.
And right now he feels it’s too loaded in the defensive team’s favour as both teams look to generate their power from almost zero at the “fold-in” engagement.
That means for a defensive team it doesn’t even make sense to try and hook the ball. “If you can stay in the fight it’s an eight-on-seven battle, and from what I’ve seen that’s what most teams are doing at the moment,” said Mealamu
Something i read on RH
Finally, negotiations for the next broadcasting deal will escalate. What needs to be done?
DJ: I’m not sure that more is necessarily better but South Africa’s game of brinkmanship to have six teams is certainly adding heat in that direction. Get a Pacific Islands team involved and add an Asian outfit. Base that franchise in Japan and bolster it with New Zealand talent who would still be available to play for the All Blacks. The money Japan would bring to the market would compensate for shortfall that would come with an Island outfit.
LN: South Africa won’t budge on a sixth team being included. On form they don’t deserve another, but in the modern age money talks. New Zealand’s closest rivals bring in the biggest slice of broadcasting revenue so that’s a non-negotiable to expansion. Everything must be done to prevent Australia gaining another team. Five is pushing it there. Five teams are optimal here, too. Argentina needs inclusion and, in a perfect world, the Pacific Islands would gain promotion. Throw in a Japanese side, to tap into that lucrative market, and you have 19 teams. You then need some sort of conference format. More games are not an option. Trouble is this requires all three existing Sanzar nations to agree. That still appears some way off.
@ superBul:
How did the teams of 30 odd years ago handle the put in? The hooker used to raise his left hand, and tap his loosehead props back, signalling to the scrumhalf that he was ready for the no 9 to feed the ball in.
I don’t know if I am missing something, but to me it seems that teams with a decent scrum don’t have a problem on their own put in.
The Aussies need to send their props to Europe for a few weeks to learn how to scrum.
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