When American political strategist Lee Atwater stated that “perception is reality”, the former aide to president George H W Bush could hardly have known the contribution he was making to the debate on modern scrummaging.
For all the positivity surrounding Ireland’s two wins to open up this year’s Six Nations, a concern for the concession of scrum penalties remains simmering in the background.
Against France, Andrew Porter was penalised twice in quick succession in the first half. After half-time, the French replacement front row eked out a further penalty, cementing a clear advantage.
Scrumming down against Italy, Ireland fared much better, winning as many as four scrum penalties, but still conceding a handful of decisions.
“Your reputation precedes you, good or bad,” said former Ireland tighthead prop Mike Ross, speaking on The Counter Ruck podcast.
“For some reason we’ve been identified as a side that can give penalties away in the scrum. Sometimes I would question if the referees are actually looking at what they’re seeing or going with preconceived notions.”
When there can be such volatility, Ireland finding themselves on the back foot one week only to dominate in the next fixture, questions arise. Is it the opposition, personnel, a different referee interpretation?
“No, we’ve got an honest group,” said Andy Farrell after the Italy game. “We always review things very thoroughly anyway. An honest group would say, last week [vs France] they wanted to improve on that and rightly so.
“I thought there was a lot of intent in how we scrummaged today [vs Italy]. I thought they were aggressive in how they went about that and it was a huge advantage for us today in our game.”
Rugby's culture war - Mike Ross on the state of Ireland's scrum
Ireland’s scrum is by no means disastrous. In a small sample of two games in this championship, their 93 per cent success rate is second highest in the Six Nations. Their rate of 7.3 per cent of scrums leading to penalties given away is second lowest.
Yet the scrum remains a sensitive issue for historical reasons. Whenever Ireland – and Leinster, given the first-choice front row hail from the province – concede scrum penalties, reams of analysis apportioning blame hit the social media airways. One player more than most is singled out for criticism: Andrew Porter.
Ross explains that his former team-mate has developed a reputation for sticking his hips out to the side of the scrum, instead of staying straight – scrummaging square, as they say.
Ross explains why such a change of direction of the hips from Ireland’s loosehead occurs, and how it is a bugbear for officials, an infamous example of not painting the picture they want.
“If a tighthead is coming across, he’s trying to create a three on two by leaving the opposition loosehead behind him, so he’s only pushing against the hooker and opposition tighthead. They’ll try and create a mismatch.
“It’s complicated when it comes to a loosehead swinging out. Sometimes he’ll follow the [opposition] tighthead. If the tighthead is taking an angle in on the hooker, he has to follow him or he gets left behind, that’s one reason.
“Two, he [Porter] wants to shove the scrum across and disrupt the scrum. You’ll see England doing that, the French under-20s did it to Ireland quite well.”
Ross also offers a solution to the issue of hips swinging out to the side, one that involves Porter using his renowned strength to simply overpower an opposition tighthead, rather than follow him in towards the hooker.
“I know Ports, love him, he’s a great guy but I think sometimes he’s a bit too impatient,” he says. “He’s so strong, so powerful, he could just wait that little bit longer and get his reward. Just stay square, stay straight. Keep his hips tight to the hooker, keep walking up the field.”
The perception of Porter has filtered through all levels of the game. After Leinster’s St Stephen’s Day clash with Munster, where Porter and opposite number Oli Jager both gave away a handful of penalties, Munster forwards coach Andy Kyriacou said he had to put on his “politician’s hat” when asked about their battle.
Similarly, officials are aware of repetitional shortcomings of all props they come across. World Rugby hired Mike Cron, the New Zealand scrum guru, to coach referees and create consistency to how all scrums are refereed.
If props such as Porter are singled out in those meetings, as well as by opposition coaches when they talk to referees, a perception inevitably builds.
Yet there are plenty who defend Porter. Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde recently said he had “turned a corner” and that he was a “top-end scrummager”.
Ross also wants to highlight Porter’s capabilities, as well as his weaknesses.
“We talk about him getting penalised but I think a lot is perception. You get a reputation for doing that and it takes a while to wear off.
“I feel he gets picked out more than warrants it. Is he perfect? No. Does he cheat? Of course he does, everyone does. I think he should get more reward than he does.
“There were a couple of times when we were penalised against France, I thought France were lucky to get those penalties. Similarly back in the [World Cup] quarter-final against New Zealand, of the three scrum penalties I thought two were stonewall Ireland penalties.
“A lot of it is interpretation, that’s something I guess would annoy fans because one referee would have a different interpretation to another referee and everyone’s got their own take on it.”
Ross’s comments cast doubt on the viability of World Rugby’s project to create scrum consensus. When people talk of interpretation, can there be objective right and wrong?
As for Porter and Ireland, there are two ways of characterising this scrum reputation. Either there is a technical problem, leading to regular illegality, or occasional mishaps have fuelled a widespread conversation, building a perception that influences officiating.
As always when faced with two extremes, the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.
Mike Ross was speaking to Nathan Johns on Thursday’s episode of The Counter Ruck podcast. You can listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
