Nigel Owens :
Is there such a thing as the perfect scrum? On occasions, believe it or not, there probably is. A perfect scrum would be that the scrum is up, the bindings are long, one team is pushing one team back, or they are both holding the same pressure so nobody’s moving and the scrum is perfect. It’s up, it’s good and that is a perfect scrum, and believe it or not, from time to time, we do see them!
We will look first of all at the set-up sequence of crouch, bind and set. The teams will come together. We’ll say the ‘crouch’, and the players will come down. When they come down to a crouch position, the referee will then look to see if the players are square and that the height is good; so they are not too low or not too high â€" that they are in a good position no lower than hip- height and that we see one of the six shoulders. If one of the shoulders are tucked in, then the scrum won’t be square when they set; that’s what we look for and we then call the ‘crouch’.
Then they ‘bind’ on the opposition; so players will reach on the opposition - which gives the correct distance apart for the safety of getting the scrum together. In that procedure we have to make sure that there is space between the two shoulders; so we’re looking for temple-to-temple on the distance head-to-head. If the shoulders are touching; which means there is no space, then the referee will have to call them up and reset.
Once we’ve done the ‘set’, the teams will come together. Then it becomes totally passive; nothing can move now â€" the teams can’t start pushing until the ball goes into the scrum.
We want the ball to go into the middle of the scrum, which we call a credible feed. A lot of you will probably be listening to this and smiling and saying that we don’t get the ball in the middle and as referees we need to be better at it and we need to get the ball as consistently as possible in the middle of the scrum. What we call a credible feed is that the least part of the ball is touching the middle of the scrum in the tunnel.
So once the scrum is stationary and square after we have said the ‘set’, the scrum-half stands in the middle of the tunnel. When everything is good, the referee will tap the scrum-half, or if the scrum-half is on the opposite side he will point or nod, and then the scrum-half will put the ball into the middle of the scrum. Only when the ball goes into the middle of the scrum can the teams then start to push.