England, South Africa and the Scrum

Shame (for us English) at the end of course. Was the penalty decision correct? I find it very difficult to know, as I understand the explanation from Ben O’Keefe but I’m not sure that I would have made the same decision.

Not that I ever have, or ever will, officiate at a World Cup.

What I have to say though, is that if you are going to award a kickable penalty that will decide the outcome of a game, you need to be very, very sure that it is correct. I do not see how he could have been absolutely sure that it was 100% the correct decision.

Did Genge’s knee touch the ground? Yes it did. Is this a penalty? Well not necessarily, as the law states that it must be ‘deliberate’ and as Genge corrected himself before the ball came in it would suggest that it was not deliberate – particularly as he was right in front of the referee, and knew he had to be squeaky clean

Did Koch drive across the scrum, absolutely. Is this a penalty? Of course it is. The question though, as always is who instigated this? Is it the loose head driving in and pushing the tight head across, or is it the tight head instigating it and the loose head simply following (as to not follow would likely result in losing the bind). To me, it looked like Koch was always heading across, just looking at his feet and his rear-end before the engage. Anyway, shit happens.

Something I have noticed during this RWC is that referees have not penalised scrums as regularly as before and instead insisted that the ball is played away. I have really welcomed this very slight change. Possibly to England’s detriment it has mostly been the European referees who have managed this the best.

I would love to know how he reviewed this game. As a referee, not as an England fan, it would be a fascinating exercise as it appeared to me that he was harsher on South Africa in the first half, and harsher on England in the second. ‘Balanced’ you might say but really one would be happier with balance throughout the game.

Back in 2007, before I was a ref, I loved the power of the scrum and how it propelled a very ordinary England side into that years World Cup Final. Now, I find it an existential threat to the game, as we seem to find it not as a competitive re-start but rather as a points scoring machine. This view could have a “rose-tinted” bias to it of course, but I would like to think that there is some rationale to it also.

When I am in a game, the bar I set for a scrum penalty is very high – it needs to be very obvious or very dangerous. This does not negate the advantages for a good scrumming team, who can launch effective front-foot attacks off a powerful scrum, or indeed disrupt the oppositions defensive scrums without resorting to another penalty.

So what to do? In my humble opinion, it would seem that restricting the scrum pushing distance could be the answer. Today, U-18 rugby has a pushing limit of 1.5m and this is sufficient to benefit a dominant scrum. We don’t see push over tries at the highest level anyway, so what is there to lose?