England v Ireland Rugby Union

[disjointed]

Now i am not a big rugby union fan, but i watched the 2nd half today after i got home from the game, what impressed me was the way both teams actually held their shape for the scrums. Normally you see one of the sides collapsing or the ball being fed in wrong, today it made for a more entertaining game, I would have thought that the pitch not ripping up would have contributed to that.

[rudemedic]

Now i am not a big rugby union fan, but i watched the 2nd half today after i got home from the game, what impressed me was the way both teams actually held their shape for the scrums. Normally you see one of the sides collapsing or the ball being fed in wrong, today it made for a more entertaining game, I would have thought that the pitch not ripping up would have contributed to that.

 

The IRB have put in a bit of work changing the scrum rules to ensure that they are even contests, and not adversely affected by "cheating", which includes making sure the second rows aren't doing the hooking. That no doubt helped, plus like you say a good pitch can do wonders for the quality of the scrum, a bit like a good ref too, although Joubert the SA ref, is a decent ref he is by far from the best one, especially at the scrums.

 

Evenly matched packs will also helped, as if a pack knows it is outclassed they often revert to cheating to try and limit the damage from scrums.