WHEN I STARTED writing this analysis, it was meant to take a look at how New Zealand were putting themselves under severe pressure by selecting an unchanged front row for tomorrow’s clash in Auckland.
However, an exchange in the first half between referee Wayne Barnes and Australian captain Stephen Moore caught my attention, and sadly it summed up the attitude of World Rugby towards the scrum.
The incident can be viewed below, and I’ll do my best to transcribe what’s audible in the conversation. (Go to 26:58 if the video doesn’t automatically do so)
Moore: “Is there any reason we didn’t get a scrum penalty up there? Like, we were on our feet, going forward…”
Barnes: “You played it away, mate… Ok…”
Moore: “Still it was in the… (inaudible)”
Barnes: “Ahh, I’m not certain there was an offence there. I just thought you got some…”
Moore: “They were all falling on the ground…”
Barnes: “I thought you just had dominance but didn’t see anything illegal. I see what you’re saying, but… and they ball came out…”
Unacceptable
A respectful dialogue between a captain and a referee, but the problem isn’t in the tone used or the attitude of one over the other.
The problem is that if Barnes was unable to spot an infringement at the scrum in question, he’s simply not good enough to be refereeing at test level.
Even with Drew Mitchell standing in as an auxiliary flanker, the Australian scrum was utterly dominant, while New Zealand were dangerously illegal.
Even as they lined up initially, before the ball was fed, Tony Woodcock was boring across Greg Holmes.
Note how both hookers are lined up square and straight to one another, and also note how both props on the high side of the picture are forming a straight line.
It’s also worth watching where Nick Phipps is feeding the ball. Good to see the straight feeds being policed…
However, a crooked feed isn’t potentially neck-breaking, so we’ll have to pick our battles here.
As the ball moves back the scrum, the angle that Tony Woodcock is driving only gets more pronounced, to the extent that he’s almost perpendicular to the scrum.
It’s often argued by other loosehead props that the natural way their body sets in is at an angle, however as we can see on the other side of the scrum, Australia’s loosehead Scott Sio is having no trouble whatsoever maintaining a straight drive.
The net result of Woodcock driving in such a direction is that rather than moving from tryline to tryline, like a normal scrum would, this scrum moves from touchline to touchline, with the All Blacks eventually wheeling the scrum on its spot.
It’s physically impossible for a scrum to move sideways without a player illegally making it do so, and if Barnes is unable to spot this, while standing just a couple of feet away World Rugby have to step in.
The fact that the ball came out of the scrum should be irrelevant. With the vulnerability of shoulders and necks in the modern scrum, and players bigger than ever, illegal scrummaging goes beyond “dark arts” and cheating, and veers towards dangerous play.
The biggest problem is that this was the second scrum of the day where Woodcock had blatantly angled across the scrum, and he’d do it several times after.
On the opening drive of the day we can see it again; Sio and Franks are lined up square, as are Moore and Coles, but even before the ball is set, the brilliant camera angles at ANZ Stadium show us that Woodcock is planning to drive in crooked.
And once the ball is fed, he begins driving even further inside. Just like the scrum shown above, we can see how the other props (Sio and Franks) are legally giving each other as good as they get.
Again, the scrum moves sideways across the pitch, but because Scott Sio gets a good legal drive on Franks, Australia also advance it forward.
Later in the first half, however, Barnes did penalise Woodcock for yet another crooked drive, although he couldn’t miss this one.
Like he had been all day, and against South Africa in Johannesburg, Woodcock continued to angle across his opponent.
Woodcock actually drives so crooked in this scrum, he has almost turned 180 degrees from his original position, and by the time Barnes awards the penalty, the loosehead is actually facing his own goalposts.
The reason this wheel was so pronounced, was that as Woodcock drove in at an angle, the New Zealand backrow started to push out at the opposite angle, effectively rotating the scrum, without moving forward.
Despite his loosehead under performing so badly, Steve Hansen is giving Tony Woodcock another crack at Sekope Kepu this Saturday in the Bledisloe rematch in Auckland. In fact, despite the gulf being so big in the scrum, Hansen has named an unchanged front row, with Owen Franks to renew his rivalry with Scott Sio.
While Sio got the better of the exchanges last week, their battle was fought in a pretty good spirit, with each player staying within the rules of the game.
The one aspect that is changing for the front rows though, is the referee, with Nigel Owens the man in the middle.
Let’s hope he’s done his homework on Tony.
Such an irish name