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Dave Rennie: Uncontested scrums are 'not rugby'

Petrus du Plessis oversees the Wallabies scrum /PA

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is not a fan of uncontested scrums in professional rugby – and he’s not the only one.

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With the coronavirus already causing havoc before a ball has even been kicked in competition proper, that very prospect of uncontested scrums during the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific has been floated.

By Rugby Australia boss Andy Marinos no less.

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The massive ‘void’ in South African rugby.

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The massive ‘void’ in South African rugby.

But Marinos’ potential protection plan for less-experienced front-rowers in the event of COVID-19 wiping out rostered props during Super Rugby Pacific hasn’t gone down too well.

“I haven’t been involved in any of those discussions but you’d have a lot of excited props if they felt they didn’t have to push at scrum time and get around the field and make a difference,” Rennie said on Tuesday.

“So hopefully it doesn’t get to that stage.”

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To the contrary, but agreeing with Rennie, NSW Waratahs prop Harry Johnson-Holmes said he wouldn’t be excited at all.

“It would put me out of a job, so hopefully they stay contested,” said Johnson-Holmes, comparing no pushing at scrums to removing specialist goalkickers from rugby.

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“There’s a lot of closed skills in rugby and, if we start looking to modify and alter the game to cater to perhaps issues in depth, then there’s probably a lot of the game that would need to be changed.

“I know front row is more of a safety thing. I understand that. But it’s a characteristic of the clubs that they probably need to assess and know that they have depth beyond a few emergencies.”

There can be no doubting NSW’s front-row depth, according to forwards coach Pauli Taumoepeau, who says the Waratahs on “every other day” have as many as nine props at training, including developmental players.

Little wonder Taumoepeau also strongly opposes uncontested scrums being enforced in the event of a major COVID-19 outbreak.

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“If I was to talk on behalf of every coach, I would say we would always welcome the contest,” Taumoepeau said.

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“Rugby is a contest game; you contest at lineout, you contest [the] maul, you contest [the] tackle.

“If you take that scrum battle out of the way, as much as it’s very much for the purist, I just don’t think its rugby anymore. So, when given the opportunity, we would always pick contest.”

“And so we are doing a lot of work with [former Wallabies prop and Waratahs general manager] Andrew Blades.

“We have a lot of young props in and around training. At training the other week we had nine props – most of them were 19, 20. There is no such thing as ‘we have enough props’.”

Uncontested scrums certainly wouldn’t be without precedent in pro rugby as they’ve already been used at World Cups.

World Rugby’s law states: “Scrums will become uncontested if either team cannot field a suitably trained front row or if the referee so orders.”

– Darren Walton

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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