David Ferguson: Uncontested scrum ‘loophole’ must be closed

Speaking of coaches, many in New Zealand have Warren Gatland already installed as the next coach of the All Blacks, even though the Welsh Rugby Union have insisted he is going nowhere and Gatland reiterated his commitment to the Welsh cause yesterday.

But he still cannot help putting his foot in it. A wind-up merchant from the Waikato, Gatland has an innate urge to make rash comments he feels are just honest, but others view as vindictive or simply stupid.

Yesterday, in trying to explain why he felt referee Alain Rolland was right in law to send off Sam Warburton but wrong in terms of feel for the game, he revealed that his coaching team discussed withdrawing a prop with a fake injury in Saturday’s semi-final to force the game to go to uncontested scrums.

They decided against it, for moral reasons and their love of the game, but he would have been better keeping his mouth shut. The “tactic” has been going on for years, with or without the help of fake blood, but, if nothing else, Gatland’s comments should help to end the process. Props, particularly tightheads, are under greater pressure now, not only from the scrum but also from having to run ever-heavier bodies, developed unnaturally to hold up a ton of weight, around a field quicker and more often than before.

Some unions, including the French, have moved to eight substitutes to allow an extra front row, and all professional games – where player shortage is not an issue – should go that way. Uncontested scrums are a farce and the fact that coaches are still minded to cheat to deploy them is a blight on the game.