A bit long-winded but here is an excerpt from one of the resolutions for discussion at the 3 December SARU meeting.
U/14 to U/16 age groups
U14:
Players aged 12, 13 or 14, with these players turning 13, 14 and having turned 14 respectively during the year in question
U15:
Players aged 13, 14 or 15, with these players turning 14, 15 and having turned 15 respectively during the year in question
U16:
Players aged 14, 15 or 16, with these players turning 15, 16 and having turned 16 respectively during the year in question
FORMAT:
- Normal Rugby Laws with Scrum Law modifications
- Full scrum formation
- Passive engagement or fold-over, with pre-scrum binding
- Proposed calls:
- § Crouch (align ear-to-ear, and get into spine-in-line and parallel position),
- § Bind (come together and bind-up, bar up and prepare),
- § Scrum (ball in and contest begins)
- Calling “Scrum” is in line with the Law, which indicates the start of play in the scrum when the ball is put in
- No hit allowed during engagement
- Full scrumming contest at put-in
- One-and-a-half (1½) meter push allowed, thereafter no more contest
- Enforce Law 20.2 Front Row Player Positions
- § ALL front row players must have both feet on the ground, with their body weight supported firmly on at least one foot and be able to maintain their own balance, at all times during the scrum
- § This will limit the risk of scrum collapse
- Post engagement:
- § Enforce Under 19 Variations Law 20.1 (h)
- No wheeling. A team must not intentionally wheel a scrum.
- If a wheel reaches 45 degrees, the referee must stop play.
- If the wheel is unintentional, the referee orders another scrum at the place where the scrum is stopped.
- No turnover possession when the scrum wheels through 45°
- § Both Loose-head and Tight-head props must bind with their elbows not lower than their shoulder line
- § Enforce Under 19 Variations Law 20.1 (h)
- Management: Should there be a gross mismatch, inadequacy or unsuitability of either of the forward packs, then uncontested scrums should be called for by the referee
U/18 and U/19 age group to Club Senior 2nd Division AND this includes School Provincial U/18 and all School U/19 competitions
U/18:
Players aged 16, 17 or 18, with these players turning 17, 18 and having turned 18 respectively during the year in question
U/19:
Players aged 16, 17, 18 or 19, with these players turning 17, 18, 19 and having turned 19 respectively during the year in question
U/20:
Players aged 18, 19 or 20, with these players turning 19, 20 and having turned 20 respectively during the year in question
Senior:
Players aged at least 18, turning 19, during the year in question, for all positions other than the front row AND Players aged at least 19, turning 20, during the year in question, for all front row positions
(Specific reference needs to be made of the SARU Under-age Regulations for U20 and Senior Level Rugby)
FORMAT:
- Normal Rugby Laws with Scrum Law modifications
- Full scrum formation
- Active Engagement, with pre-scrum binding and a reduced hit allowed on engagement
- Proposed calls:
- § Crouch (align ear-to-ear, and get into spine-in-line and parallel position),
- § Bind (Take the bind firmly on opposite front row, but do not fully come together yet, keep the ear-to-ear distance, bar up and prepare),
- § Scrum (Maintain, and secure the bind and actively engage, ball in and contest begins)
- This should be seen as an abridged progression from Passive engagement to the full engagement currently performed at Senior Professional levels of play, with potentially less risk of collapse and catastrophic injury upon engagement in these amateur levels playing rugby
- Front rowers have to be parallel to the ground, properly pre-bound to each other and aligned in the appropriate channel of the opposing front row before engagement
- Distance between opposing front rows, pre-engagement, is significantly reduced, to where the ears of the opposing front rows are in a straight line across the mouth of the scrum or “ear-to-ear”
- Full scrumming contest at put-in
- § One-and-a-half (1½) meter push allowed, thereafter no more contest, for School U18 and School U19 leagues or matches
- § Full scrum contest within IRB adult rugby Laws after the front rows have engaged for Club U19 up until Club Senior 2ndDivision rugby
- Club Senior 2nd Division Rugby is the second highest Amateur Level of Club Rugby in South Africa, and does not refer to Club Second teams per se, unless they are actively participating in the second highest Amateur Club Division or League in the Province e.g. WP Super B League
- Enforce Law 20.2 Front Row Player Positions
- § ALL front row players must have both feet on the ground, with their body weight supported firmly on at least one foot and be able to maintain their own balance, at all times during the scrum
- § This will limit the risk of scrum collapse
- Post engagement:
- § School Rugby:
- Enforce Under 19 Variations Law 20.1 (h):
- No wheeling. A team must not intentionally wheel a scrum.
- If a wheel reaches 45 degrees, the referee must stop play.
- If the wheel is unintentional, the referee orders another scrum at the place where the scrum is stopped.
- No turnover possession when the scrum wheels through 45°
- Enforce Under 19 Variations Law 20.1 (h):
- § Adult Club Rugby:
- No deliberate wheeling of the scrum
- No turnover possession when the scrum wheels through 90°
- Both Loose-head and Tight-head props must bind with their elbows not lower than their shoulder line
- § School Rugby:
- Management: Should there be a gross mismatch, inadequacy or unsuitability of either of the forward packs, then scrums may be contested in the format of the previous level
- § Passive engagement or fold-over, with pre-scrum binding
- § No hit allowed during engagement
- § Full scrumming contest at put-in
- § One-and-a-half (1½) meter push allowed, thereafter no more contest
- § Failing that, uncontested scrums should be called for by the referee
@star: I think that is exactly what will happen. If there is no hit in the scrum engagement it would make more sense to have faster more mobile players who can get to the breakdown quicker. The physical contest at the scrum will die.
The world is becoming far too risk averse. I work in the engineering industry and it has got to the point where the risk assessment and safety paperwork have become more important than getting the job done. How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? 1 – and 6 safety officers to make sure it is done safely. Like I said above, boys have been scrumming against each other for over a hundred years. How many catastrophic incident have their been as a result of the scrum? You have far more chance of being severely injured in a car accident.
@ Greenblooded- How do you think this will inmpact on the selection process? Westville could select a front row that averages 110 KG or they could go for smaller and more explosive trio.Interesting times indeed.
Sadly – this was accepted by SARU on Friday and will come into effect next season.
@GreenBlooded: These laws have no place in rugby,seriously.
@CyndiAtRugby: in fact , you will see more fighting and injuries in games, like netball
@Gungets Tuft: The thought of Kobus Wiese doing ballroom dancing is rather interesting. I have some rugby photos that look like they’re doing ballroom dancing.
@Green Hopper: Even basket ball is more of a collision sport. :mad:
@CyndiAtRugby: As Kobus Wiese famously said “Ballroom dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport”
@CyndiAtRugby: i can see why now soccer is gaining momentum
when one looks at the old games in the 80″s one can see how “messy” the game was with this type of scrummaging , however the touch , pause engage , was flawed as well, but it was fine before that with a simple engage call
@GreenBlooded: Okay, I am now going to have to find something else cos soft scrumming just doesn’t work.
Most of the guys in my family have played front row – their worst injuries were broken collar bones, broken noses, bloody noses and black eyes. Interestingly you hardly ever see the front row walk off the field with black eyes anymore.
I’m starting to think that soccer is more contact that rugby
WTF : who are these idots that write this crap have they ever played a game , ever??/ , isnt teh objective to “create a contest” thsi is no better and a slighly
@Playa: Mate – I played front row most of my schoolboy career. Those were the days when there was no ‘crouch touch pause engage’ BS. We were taught as loose-head’s how to pop your opposition tighthead out to destabilise the opposition scrum. We were taught as tightheads how to change binds and ‘buckle’ the loosehead to get him off balance and destabilise the scrum that way. It was a right wrestling match – it was legal and encouraged. We hit hard. We scrummed hard. We bent and got bent. We knocked the bejesus out of each other. And do you know how many serious injuries I can recall in my 5 years at Glenwood? Zip. Not one. If you did your neck in a scrum you were taken off, put in a collar and played the next week – they gave you light duty at practice to recover.
It seems we are CYA’ing ourselves for the one in a million accident here.
I posted on this some months ago either here or on 365.com Steve La Marque alluded to this in a very informative presentation he did on ‘reffing the scrum’ to the Durban Referees Society. It will radically change the game as we know it – and not for the better IMHO. As Steve put it – something to the effect of “you will end up sending your A team front row for extra maths lessons cos they are normally quite dof and need them and promote your B team loose forwards to A team front row”. And that pretty much is what will happen.
Gone will be the front row player who bases his game on a solid chassis and upper body strength. It will all become about speed and mobility, fetching and winning turnovers at the breakdown – because without the ‘hit’ at scrumtime, it is pretty much over as a contest. I would go as far as to say you might as well forget the scrum alltogether and restart with a tap and go or a rugby league style ball under the foot. A major feature of the game will be lost and a lot of the character of the game will be gone – so much for ‘anyone can play rugby regardless of body type’. @Cyndi – you and someone else we know have reason to be very concerned about this.
Safety is all well and good – but taken to extremes and we will end up playing rugby on a computer screen. Boys have been scrumming down in rugby matches for more than a hunderd years. How many serious injuries have their been? Sanity need to prevail here.
@Playa: I agree totally. Doesn’t this take away the purpose of scrumming? I agree with bringing in safety but please let’s keep within the nature of the game.
This may be controversial,but these laws and regulations are what have made scrums more dangerous.Watching games of old (pre-1990s)on ESPN Classic,you barely ever found scrums collapsing.