By Lucky Vince Pienaar
Just once – yes once – during the entire World Cup, did a player call for a scrum after catching a mark. And the rules are set to change because of it.
It was during the World Cup semi-final between France and South Africa that Damian Willemse caught a mark and didn’t take the expected quick tap. Instead, he calmly placed the ball on the ground and indicated to the ref that he wanted a scrum.
The shocked lawmakers reached for their law books and discovered that, yes, a team can elect to call for a scrum after a mark is taken.
There is no clear record of who in the Springbok camp decided it would be a good tactic, but it sure had a great impact on the game. For the rest of the match, France could no longer take the chance of kicking the high up-and-under into the 22m area of the Springboks because it could result in a scrum – an area of the game where the Boks were clearly in charge.
Rule changes by World Rugby, as reported by SA Rugby Mag, include “removal of the scrum option from a free-kick at a scrum, reducing dead time”.
Reducing dead time? Yes, that must be the reason. Not surprisingly, no mention is made of “reducing the superiority of the Boks at scrum time”.
Another scrum change rule is that the ball must be played after the maul has been stopped once, not twice – just a little limitation on the power of the Bok-scrumming machine.
Another suggested rule change is the ham-fisted attempt at limiting the dreadful impact of the red card. The offending player can be replaced after 20 minutes. Some people might think that’s progress, and others might say it’s just another lame attempt at dealing with the symptoms and not the cause of the ill effects of the card system.
But, beware World Rugby! There is something about changing laws that you must understand.
Trying to make laws to limit one team and benefit another means that the more you try to shackle the bad boy (in this case Rassie Erasmus), the more he will come up with other options. The people who are supposed to benefit are the ones who get punished.
Pictured above: Damien Willemse.
Image source: X
