Letters: Massie right to call for scrummage change

I WANT to thank Allan Massie for highlighting the dreadful state of the current scrummage Laws (‘Let’s hope the IRB are set to engage on scrum chaos’, 30 March).

They were revised recently, supposedly to make them easier to operate, but the shambles during Scotland’s recent game against Wales shows that they are still a complete mess. It is a strange coincidence that it was because of a previous Scotland v Wales game the lineout laws were changed because Wales continually “kicked the ball off the island”, never allowing the game to develop. I don’t like the lifting part, but lineouts are now reasonably controlled.

Well, we have seen the same thing occurring at the recent game, where Scotland were penalised on almost every scrum, undoubtedly due to the clever timing of the Welsh props (although I would have hoped that our “world-class props” could have figured out a way of solving the problem).

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There has to be a change. Why should the packs come together with a wallop? There is no real advantage in this so far as winning the scrum is concerned, but it is very clear that it can baffle referees – we saw an allegedly top-class ref hopelessly taken in by the Welsh props. If they find they can do it, they were correct to continue, but it does nothing for the game by regularly preventing development of the play after a scrum.

The IRB must now look at this law again. It is only a year or two since they already modified it, but they have totally missed the significance of the present opportunity to tricking the opposition, while completely missing the squint put-ins. It is essential that this is sorted out.

JIM HALL

Colinton Grove

EDINBURGH

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