Also - allowing bent feeding is blatantly ignoring a fundamental law of our game. Such a laissez faire attitude has caused disastrous consequences for our scrum - so were that attitude to continue, what else shall we allow to be ignored? Are bent lineouts the next mess in waiting? Ignore forward passes...?
Bent feeding is a disaster for our game, completely disrespecting the core values of our scrum and de-skilling the game at the same time. WR have an agenda about it - which should be publicised so those behind it can be called to account.
Dunhookin', you're still repeating this idea that crooked feeding is the
cause of all our scrum problems. It is not, and no matter how many times you keep repeating it, it is still wrong.
Crooked feeds are a
symptom of the scrum problems we have now. Simply enforcing a straight feed is not a magic bullet that will miraculously fix the scrum., because the primary cause of the scrum problems we have now is front row players cheating and using illegal, and dangerous scrummaging techniques to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents, coupled with a lack of skill among hookers who have never learned to strike properly. This has been a result of two things...
1. The adoption of the eight-man shove by most teams world-wide (see my previous post about
"Bajada" in the
"Dysfunctional Scrums" thread -
http://www.therugbyforum.com/thread...gony-continues?p=826866&viewfull=1#post826866 )
2. Continual efforts by WR to micromanage the scrum engagement resulting in encouraging of the "hit".
Both of these have led directly to unstable scrums.
You sound like someone who has been around the game a long time so I am pretty sure you will
know that in the past, the forwards simply put down the scrum without any instructions from the referee beyond pointing to the mark. The ball was fed (straight) when the hooker was ready (
not when the referee tells the scrum half). The ball was hooked down either channel 1 or 2; the second row players knew which channel the hooker was going to hook down, so they stood with their feet in a position to allow the ball to travel unimpeded to the back where the SH would play the ball away. From feed to clearance was a matter of a couple of seconds.
Here is a very young Brian Moore (when he still had hair) who demonstrates a proper hooking techniques...
(Those outside of UK might find this blocked, so try this one)
[video]https://uk.proxfree.com/permalink.php?url=s54aaHA%2FaGsaD5vHs0QZLcUclS%2Fc UxrnNZwEMCiA0I%2BKl%2BPUjrbSWvA6pl5WU3W6x5f%2FH6ry bitHrdlRXlQglA%3D%3D&bit=1[/video]
At about 2min, Moore shows a great practice technique. All you need is a padded post, two marker cones and someone to feed the ball. You can practice hooking down channel 1 or channel 2.
Until we return to having scrums where both hookers attempt to hook (and I cannot see that happening unless WR make hooking for the ball a compulsory part of the game.) these problems are not gong to be fixed. Simply feeding the ball straight into a scrum where neither hooker wants to hook the ball will
not fix anything... its not even a good start!!