TALKING POINT: SOS (Save our scrums) from this American madness

It didn’t take long on Saturday to see just who would make an immediate impact in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby in Cape Town.

For the entire lead-up to the game (which nowadays is shorter than normal thanks to teams naming their sides for the clash less than 24 house before kickoff), there was one question to be answered from a national level.

It wasn’t whether or not the Bulls would break their duck in Cape Town (they did, but only just) or whether the rivalry between the two coaches would be as intense as it sometimes is.

Nope, for me the real question was if Jan-Hendrik Wessels - the utility forward elevated by Rassie Erasmus last year to test level - was going to stand up to Frans “The buffalo” Malherbe.

Fresh-faced Wessels had never encountered a scrum test against the Bud Spencer of front rows before and while he is definitely seen as a player of the future, Wessels is still developing in the dark arts.

DARK ARTS

But scrumming, as we are often reminded, is not just the purvey of those fronting up in numbers one to three, but has a lot to do with cohesion, the togetherness of eight players, pushing in the right areas. All of this to give the three up front time to do their jobs properly against the other side.

Wessels placed a marker in that first scrum as the Bulls demolished the Stormers pack, and while he didn’t see a large part of the game, it was memorable enough that it will be talked about for a long time to come.

It was backed up by his replacement - the growing legend of Gerhard Steenekamp. Quiet and unassuming, Steenekamp is what Springbok scrum coach Daan Human longs for in a loosehead. He simply gets on with the job.

And while the likes of Steenekamp, Wessels, Wilco Louw and others start to make themselves known and give Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus more options when the Bok front row starts to get to its sell-by date, one thing is clear across the board in South Africa, the scrum remains king to launch the game plans of all the teams locally, and long may it continue.

NEW LAW TRIALS IN MLR

But in the same breath, it was noticeable that the Major Rugby League (MRL) - the body that controls the game in America - announced some distressing new “law trials” for the upcoming season - specifically to depower the scrum.

While World Rugby’s plans to depower the scrum have long been a debating point, the decisions made by the MLR seem to want to take the scrum totally out of the game, in the name of entertainment.

It hasn’t been lost that the new contract the American league has signed with ESPN may be part of that driver, and the 2031 World Cup will be a big focus for World Rugby in expanding the game to new territories when it gets to that point.

And then there is the age-old concern that World Rugby does these trials in territories where they won’t be openly noticed by the rest of the rugby world, and eventually will present “evidence” that they work, so changing the game forever.

Rugby already suffers from a confusing change of laws every year, making it difficult for fans to grasp whatever the body that controls “the shape of the game” decides at their yearly outing.

And there is more than enough evidence that rugby is moving towards League, and wants less stoppages, more ball in play and more of a hybrid game that takes away the power element.

For instance, the laws in question are rather distressing. The MLR trials mean that the game will be radically different without these.

PROPS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

For example - the removal of the scrum option for a knock on that goes into touch is a strange one, as it leaves only a lineout option for the team.

Where a knock-on in goal was originally a scrum five metres out, it is now just a goalline drop out. If a player fails to “play it” after five seconds, it is a free kick and not a scrum and if a maul is stopped, it is a free kick.

Think about it for a moment and these will virtually take scrums out of the game, leaving them only for knock ons. It may speed up the game, but it will make props an endangered species and change the game that was once for all sizes.

Changing laws also has the law of unintended consequences, that tends to only become known after implementation.

But it is clear, if the MLR laws creep their way into the global game, we may see the end of scrums forever.

Ox Nche may like to say that Salads don’t win scrums, and the cake-loving Bok may have a point. But in the MLR, the salad crew has taken over the kitchen, and are forcing their fans to have a diet of bland lettuce.

We need to stop this madness now, before World Rugby thinks it is a good idea.

Or the beauty of the scrum may be lost forever.

NEW LAW TRIALS FOR 2025 MLR SEASON

LAW 11.2

removal of the scrum option on a knock-forward/throw forward into touch - lineout only.

LAW 12A

a knock or throw forwards into in-goal, and grounded by either team = goal line drop out. (not a scrum).

LAW 15.17

failure to play ball after 5 seconds of "use it"

call = sanction: fk (not a scrum).

LAW 16.17

unsuccessful end to a maul = sanction: fk (not a scrum).

CONTINUED IMPLEMENTATION FROM 2024 SEASON

LAW 9.30

replacement for red card player after 20 minutes.

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LAW 8.8 (B)

automatic 7 points for a try scored in the area directly beneath and between the goal posts, extending to the dead ball line.

LAW 20.3

at a reset scrum (or a scrum opted for by a team following a pk at a scrum), the team then awarded pk cannot opt to take a further scrum.