The following statement may be deemed heresy by the brotherhood of rugby’s front row.
The scrum is largely predicated on cheating, the illegalities of which are open, and indeed susceptible to the disparate interpretation of the referee and his assistants in a single game, never mind from match to match; three people looking at the same picture but capable of coming to a different conclusion. It’s maddening and a blight on the sport.
Leinster’s victory over Munster at Thomond Park contained enough scrum fodder upon which to write a thesis. That deep dive would be strictly hard core.
A good scrum contest is to be admired but when the protagonists wear perplexed expressions every time the whistle is blown and the penalty/free kick/reset is well into double figures it’s frustrating for all concerned, on the pitch and in the stands, players, referees, spectators, and coaches alike.
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At one point the television cameras offered a close-up of Leinster and Ireland loosehead prop Andrew Porter after he was penalised at a scrum by referee Andrew Brace. He looked bemused. A problem for him is that he’s being singled out at Test and club level and there’s definitely an element of giving someone a bad name here.
Leinster forwards’ coach Robin McBryde explained that in the aftermath Leo Cullen had spoken to Brace, presumably to clarify some of the decisions. About 120 miles down the M7 in Limerick, Munster forwards’ coach Andi Kyriacou was also being asked about the scrum in last Tuesday night’s game.
The only consensus might have been that the scrum is difficult to referee. McBryde conceded that “it’s tough and there are two sides to every story,” but that Leinster are “really happy with the way that Andrew is scrummaging.
“We just need to see things from the referee’s point of view, maybe. I think Andrew has made great strides. I think he has fallen foul of a couple of decisions that have gone against him, but he is a top-end scrummager.
“I thought we [Leinster] scrummaged pretty well against Munster, thought we could have got a bit more out of the decisions from the referee. It’s getting those comms a little bit better, so we are seeing the same pictures as the referees are seeing.
“It’s very hard when you come up against a strong scrummager like Andrew, tightheads are going to try and find a way out to put it in a nice way. It’s tough, sometimes decisions will go against you, and you have to live with them. I think in the main, Andrew’s turned a corner with his scrummaging, and he is painting good pictures in the main.”
The nub of the problem for props is consistency within a game because if you paint pictures like Van Gogh but the referee prefers Picassos, then you’re in trouble. McBryde accepted the point.
“Consistency definitely, and consistency both from game to game, and from scrum to scrum within a game. Every scrum is different.
“It’s getting that level of consistency, I am not saying it is easy, but I think that if you set your stall out early enough in the game as a referee and you are consistent, then the players need to adapt to the decisions that you are making based on the pictures that you are seeing.
“The difficulty is when you haven’t got the consistency of decisions then you don’t know what is going to happen next. I am not saying it is any easy job by any stretch and we try our best to make those pictures as clear as possible to the referees.
“If anything, it is a bit harder in the interpros, when you are dealing with the Irish referees because players and referees alike, they feel as if they know each other a little bit better so they are able to challenge each other more; I don’t know what it is.
“Against Munster our mindset was, whatever the [referee’s] decision is we have just got to live with it and get on to the next scrum, just let the referee make his decisions. It’s getting that consistency, it’s what we are working towards.”
The next examination comes on Monday when Frank Murphy will be the art connoisseur at scrum time as Leinster host Ulster at the RDS (5.15pm) on New Year’s Day.
Jamison Gibson-Park was a late withdrawal from the Munster game; his situation requires a further review. Fellow scrumhalf Luke McGrath came through the game with no ill-effects to his knee while Harry Byrne is fit despite picking up a bang on the leg that saw him hobbling at one point.
Hooker John McKee has returned to full training after recovering from a hamstring injury, while there are no further updates on Charlie Ngatai (calf), Cormac Foley (shoulder), Ross Byrne (arm) and Jamie Osborne (shoulder).
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