To me, the great elephant in the Rugby League room are scrums. They are more obsolete than column shift, typewriter ribbons, or Souths grand final T shirts. The trouble is that no one knows what to do to replace them.
I believe that they are replaceable. They are certainly never to be restored to their former glory - arguably no single act in RL determined the course of a game, either through the old hooker's sucess rate (remember when that was an important stat - someone hooking at 54% was hot property in the off season contract negs).
The watering down of the rules into the modern pantomine was largely due to a horrible collapse that left Penrith's John Farrugia in a wheelchair - and from that point we couldnt go back. However, a sudden side benefit was the sudden loss of a myriad of penalties, the incorrect feed, feet across the tunnell, collapsing the scrum, the classic loose arm (and Rex Mossop would always point to the last hooker to get up being the culprit) - and my personal favorite - screwing the scrum.
Union of course had similar problems, but they went the other way - introducing reams of rules and guidelines that no results in referees telling everyone how to do it - and even at World Cup level that average scrum takes 10 tedious minutes when a quick round of paper, scissors, rock would do the trick. Still, that's Union - a game where completeley immersing every participant in the 1870's is the driving factor in the code's existance.
In League - the role of all bar the first 6 jumpers has changed.
- Hookers are now converted halfbacks (ie Farah), then they were violent stumps (Killer Kearney) that used studs as weapons.
- Props became hitup merchants (aka Petero) when once they were the hookers protector and the owner of intricate footwork in the contest for the ball (John O'Neill).
- Second rowers provided thrust and power in scrums (Boyd), now they run menacingly at the opposition halfback and when tackled - lose the ball and appeal to the ref for a strip (Thaiday).
- Locks used to bind and direct the scrum, and when lost, flatten the opposition halfback (Price). Now they are just the third "back" rower, having lost their title and their speciality (Gallen)
- Halfbacks were once a scrum feeding expert, and responsible for influencing or decieving referees, while directing forwards in attack and maybe linking to the backs via the 5/8 (Sterling). Now they posess a wide array of passes and kicks and sometimes dont even need a pivot (Thurston)
The game has changed so much because of the change in scrums to the point where it is outdated. Yet it remains. The sole "excuse" - taking the forwards out of play and seeing backs on backs, is bullsh*t when the attacking sides biggest player is usually at 5/8 and runs straight at the defence.
It is time to deal with the elephant in the room. We must get rid of scrums.
And replace it with.................what?
