It’s like an old dog that simply won’t let go of a bone. That’s the All Black coach Dave Rennie, and his obsession with how the scrum needs to be regulated.
Never mind the fact that World Rugby had a whole “Shape of the game” conference, and never mind that he admitted after the recent Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour that World Rugby don’t agree with him.
The All Black coach simply won’t let it go.
This past weekend he was on New Zealand radio again going on about the scrum, and how World Rugby needs to “Delete” certain laws to make the scrum simpler.
On first glance, it may sound like another whinge from a coach who lost a series to a superior Springbok side, and who is talking to an audience of his own in New Zealand after three losses in a row.
PRESSURE ON RENNIE
The pressure is certainly on the All Blacks ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup opener against Australia in Auckland, especially after the Wallabies pulled off another win over the Springboks and look to break their decades long losing streak in the trophy.
But Rennie simply can’t let the scrums go.
The Shape of the game conference, which took place before Rennie was appointed, decided and unequivocally reiterated that the game was one for all shapes and sizes. South Africa, supported mainly by France and England, reiterated that the scrum was a big part of the game, and World Rugby agreed.
But Rennie wants to go back and rewrite the laws now, simply because his scrum cannot compete with the Boks.
We all remember how Rennie tried to craft a narrative during the tour, and partly succeeded by getting the only Southern Hemisphere referee - Angus Gardner - to accept his view and ref the game according to it.
It sparked a lot of unhappiness in the Bok camp, a terrible picture where the referee was talking down to the World Player of the year when Malcolm Marx tried to point something out to him, and a lot of irritation afterwards.
RENNIE PUSHED SCRUM TALK TOO FAR
We all remember how Rennie pushed it too far and Rassie had an expletive-laden reaction after the Boks won the second test (without their scrum) and how it fuelled the Boks to win the remaining two tests in the series.
But Rennie simply won’t let it go.
Much like his assistant Neil Barnes, who went on the same Weekend Sports with Jason Pine radio show on Newstalk ZB straight after the loss in Baltimore and complained the referee was given penalties to the Boks “for bugger all”, Rennie used the same platform this weekend to voice his frustration again.
“It’s the frustrating part of a game, to be honest. I made mention of it during the series,” Rennie said on the radio show.
“There was a meeting about the shape of the game with World Rugby and the brake foot was never mentioned, but then all of a sudden it comes in.
“It’s an area where I don’t believe the referees were fully committed to it either and so we just got different messages in the changing room before every test in July. So some might be saying, ‘Oh look, just give me something’. Others are saying, ‘You got to make sure you have your foot out there’.
“Then what came in is that if you had your foot out there but you didn’t have your heel down, you’re gonna get penalised for that. I’ve got no understanding around the value of that. Supposedly, it’s gonna stop 800 kilos behind you if you have your heel down. And I think it made it harder for the referee.
RENNIE WANTS TO “DELETE RULES”
“We’ve got a game where I reckon we’re going to delete rules and things out of a game, not add more and so you’ve now got referees trying to see a foot that on the ‘S’ of set can be dragged back but the heel has to be down, so the referee can invariably only see one of those feet because the nine is blocking the path on some sides. So then they are missing the obvious angles, the obvious elbows.”
Never one to let a moment go, Rennie then hit out at the Boks scrum tactics again.
“We just felt that the South African tightheads are on a 45 (degree angle) immediately, and then they’d walk sideways. It’s really hard for our loosehead to stay in front of a tighthead who is shearing in. So if you have got scrums that are going sideways, and if they get rewarded for that, they are smart; they’re going to keep doing it.
“So what we felt was if they were forced to scrum square, then we can stay in front of that and we won’t have any issues. I thought we scrummed really well in the fourth test in Baltimore. That’s the challenge we’re sending to World Rugby: let’s simplify things. Let’s give the referees less to think about and look at, and just concentrate on keeping the scrum square.
“If you do that, then the team that’s strongest can push through you. I mean, that’s fair enough, but if you’re able to shear across and get rewarded for that, then it’s going to be a debacle at every scrum.”
BRAKE FOOT NOTHING NEW
Now, here’s the thing. The Brake foot law is nothing new in rugby. They started to trial it in 2022, although it became a full law in July this year.
It was done - and we’re quoting World Rugby here - “The Global Law Trial on the brake foot was introduced following player representation around the welfare of front row forwards. The brake foot ensures axial loading (pressure on heads and necks) is removed or reduced during the scrum engagement process.
“In line with the definition in the Laws, during the “Crouch” and “Bind” phase of the engagement sequence, match officials must be able to see both hookers’ brake foot in the middle of the tunnel. This should ensure stability and avoid axial loading. It is permissible to adjust the position of the brake foot but it must still be fulfilling the act of a brake before being fully withdrawn on the “Set” call.
“If any adjustment creates instability, pre-engagement or axial loading, then the brake is not acting as law intends and would be liable to sanction.”
So the law was designed to decrease the immense pressure and compressive forces (known as axial loading) placed on a hooker's head, neck, and vertebrae during the scrum engagement sequence. By requiring hookers to keep one foot positioned forward in the middle of the tunnel during the "Crouch" and "Bind" phases, it creates physical stability and prevents players from bearing the full weight of the forward pack directly through their necks before the "Set" call.
This came after players were worried about neck injuries in scrums and was brought in as a safety factor.
ALL BLACKS REAL REASON FOR COMPLAINING
But lo and behold, the All Blacks, a team under threat from Rugby League in their own country, have suddenly found a problem with a law that everyone agreed on. Because it was a key area where their side couldn’t adapt, and where they lost the battle.
Rennie knows that if he causes enough chaos, enough doubt in the scrum and enough questioning, and then gets the correct referee in next year’s World Cup quarterfinal, he could take the scrum out of any contest with the Springboks.
And by that he will be vindicated, no matter what the cost to the game as a whole.
And that is the whole point of his issue with the scrum. Not that it is actually a problem, but because he wants it to be a grey area that causes confusion, so his side can exploit it.
Simple as that.
If World Rugby fall for it - and so far it seems they haven’t, the game will be poorer because of it.