Re: No scrums ! : Thu Aug 06, 2020 7:22 pm  

[quote="Redscat"]

You’re not getting me on this are you!

I don’t want to see it done away with - I want it to continue but only if they are proper scrums, hell I’d even settle for properish!

However at the moment they are not even close, as someone said they are currently a joke and make the game look cheap.

So if we are not going to have real contested scrums then yes in that case get rid and find an alternative.

It’s also worth remembering that it was the case in the past that many fans used to get very irate with refs when they did enforce the rules, we older ones all remember scrums on occasions being re-set umpteen times. I do wonder if younger fans would tolerate that?

Scrums are now basically a hand over, if that’s what the authorities want then there really is no point in the scrum, just hand it over and get on with it and stop pretending.

I’ve often pondered a genuine alternative ie something a little less arbitrary than a hand over. Best I’ve come up with is a bounce off Aussie rules style but I’m the first to admit it’s not great. It’s a tricky one.

Re: No scrums ! : Thu Aug 06, 2020 8:07 pm  

Soz, vasty! Misunderstood you. Based on what you have just explained I can only agree with you 100%. I always used to watch the contested scrums with interest and anticipation because in the days of specialist hookers there was nothing better than seeing a heel against the feeding scrum half.and hooker, and the ball whipped out to the (usually) scrum half.
I used to think it would be better if the referee fed the scrum to eliminate the biased feed, but I suspect there would have been calls of "Cheat" or similar from the crowd.

Re: No scrums ! : Fri Aug 07, 2020 5:49 am  

Redscat wrote:

Soz, vasty! Misunderstood you. Based on what you have just explained I can only agree with you 100%. I always used to watch the contested scrums with interest and anticipation because in the days of specialist hookers there was nothing better than seeing a heel against the feeding scrum half.and hooker, and the ball whipped out to the (usually) scrum half.
I used to think it would be better if the referee fed the scrum to eliminate the biased feed, but I suspect there would have been calls of "Cheat" or similar from the crowd.

Back in the day a good hooker was only as good as his good blind side prop.

Re: No scrums ! : Fri Aug 07, 2020 7:31 am  

little wayne69 wrote:

Back in the day a good hooker was only as good as his good blind side prop.

Haha...this got me thinking about the old terms used, 'blind side prop' 'field side, or open side prop', ''ball playing forward'.
One specialist open side prop I remember, I think Peter Fox brought him in ,was Les Tonks. Les must have been 17-18 stone and today would probably have struggled to be a water carrier, but in the scrum he excelled. How the game has changed!
I'd have contested scrums back tomorrow - to see forwards with some skills, instead of being the battering rams they are now.

Re: No scrums ! : Fri Aug 07, 2020 7:57 am  

1315trinity wrote:

Haha...this got me thinking about the old terms used, 'blind side prop' 'field side, or open side prop', ''ball playing forward'.
One specialist open side prop I remember, I think Peter Fox brought him in ,was Les Tonks. Les must have been 17-18 stone and today would probably have struggled to be a water carrier, but in the scrum he excelled. How the game has changed!
I'd have contested scrums back tomorrow - to see forwards with some skills, instead of being the battering rams they are now.

A classic example was flash Flanagan at KR, his no 10 was Frank Fox Frank who a lot would say, exactly but he was in that team for a good reason and it wasn't his ball playing skills either, flash always praised him for helping his career.

Re: No scrums ! : Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:37 pm  

When Peter Fox was coach at Wakefield, there was a prop that was in the team and fans were on Peter's back to drop him as he seemed to do nothing .Peter dropped the prop for one game and we did not get the ball out of the scrum all the match and lost .Peter said to the fan now you no what he does leave the coaching to me.Sorry can not remember the props name

Re: No scrums ! : Fri Aug 07, 2020 7:44 pm  

alegend wrote:

When Peter Fox was coach at Wakefield, there was a prop that was in the team and fans were on Peter's back to drop him as he seemed to do nothing .Peter dropped the prop for one game and we did not get the ball out of the scrum all the match and lost .Peter said to the fan now you no what he does leave the coaching to me.Sorry can not remember the props name

Do you think that Peter Fox would have listened to the fans and dropped a player ?

Re: No scrums ! : Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:53 pm  

phe13 wrote:

Do you think that Peter Fox would have listened to the fans and dropped a player ?

Definitely if he were proving a point, he was like that, RL’s Clough. I suspect the player was probably injured so Foxy took advantage however I wouldn’t bet on it.