ALL IN THE SCRUM: A rugby miscellany

LEARNING NEW MOVES

THERE has been much discussion about the length of time it takes to get scrums completed, that the engagement procedure is too laborious and resets a match turn off.

However, the IRB have released statistics to illustrate the completion rate of the set-piece, particularly at junior level is satisfactorily high.

At the IRB Junior World Cup this year in Argentina, there was an 84 per cent scrum completion rate across the 40 matches played.

This, the governing body say, was achieved by consistent refereeing as well as coaches buying into the new directives.

Furthermore, IRB game analysis highlights that the 2010 Tri-Nations saw a 50 per cent reduction on scrum collapses compared to the 2010 Six Nations Championship and a 40 per cent reduction on the 2010 Tier 1 Test matches.

Never mind the referees being consistent, the players seem to be learning.

And they've plenty of time to do that, crouch . . . touch . . . pause . . . engage.

BEST HEAD FORWARD

IRELAND hooker Rory Best was asked this week whether he believed concussion was taken seriously in Ireland and dealt with in the proper manner.

He said it was and the IRFU take steps to ensure players are protected as much as possible. But nor did Best shy away from the ferocity of the modern game or side step the issue of head injuries.

“It is a contact sport and you tend to lead a lot into players with your head and without the ball. There is always going to be cases of it,” said Best.

Indeed, and recently illustrated by last week’s retirements of John Fogarty because of concussion and Ronan McCormack due to a neck injury.

JACKMAN LETS LOOSE

WE often ignore blurbs for books. But occasionally a few catch the eye. Bernard Jackman’s Blue Blood, which is to be launched in the Burlington Hotel tonight, promises a glimpse of life inside the walls of the Leinster camp.

The hooker often showed himself to be a crowd favourite, although now maybe not so close to former coach Michael Cheika – comfortably far away in Paris with Stade Français.

“Bernard Jackman offers, for the first time, a brutally honest portrait of the Leinster dressingroom, and reveals the tyrannical, crazy and sometimes bullying ways of the team’s coach, Michael Cheika,” says the blurb.

Now, who would have thought?

Montpellier verdict: clubs need to field their best

MONTPELLIER’S fine of €5,000 last week for not fielding a strong team in the Amlin Challenge and therefore bringing the game into disrepute may have other clubs thinking about who they field, or rather, who they don’t.

The French club appeared before a Disciplinary Committee in Dublin last Thursday after they failed to nominate their strongest possible squad as required by tournament rules.

Montpellier pleaded guilty and while the committee accepted the club’s commitment to the competition, it considered the omission of international players such as Francois Trinh-Duc, Fulgence Ouedraogo and Julien Tomas was a clear breach of the rules.

It will be interesting to see if the ERC keep up their club-watch, especially at the latter stages of both Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge competitions, where clubs are often home and dry in their groups, but with a meaningless match to play and an important French Championship or English Premiership game looming.