Rugby: ‘Faked’ uncontested scrums not the way to go for Accies coach Cross
And it doesn’t have to be in the highest echelons either that the practice has occurred; at least that is what some followers of the Scottish club scene suspect.
What’s certain is that the topic arose after Edinburgh Accies’ 13-18 defeat last weekend by Aberdeen Grammar which had seen the Capital side confronted by Scottish World Cup prop forward Moray Low from the professional Glasgow Warriors team on a one-off basis, so he could get a game and never mind any distortion to the competition’s key issues.
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Hide AdAware of the supposed practice of contriving uncontested scrums, I put it to Accies coach Simon Cross that others might have been less scrupulous than him as he had played it straight throughout.
An unequivocal Cross said: “My job is to develop these guys and I can’t develop them by saying go to uncontested scrums.
“It was a case of absolutely not. We took them on.”
If that was the only response expected of someone like Simon Cross it was typical, too, that he did not duck a live issue rugby has to find a way of addressing.