Ruck neck injury prompts change

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 1

Ruck neck injury prompts change

Starting on June 2, a new method of putting down scrums will be adopted in all rugby played in Canterbury from the under-19 grade down. The new method, approved last evening by the Canterbury union’s management committee, will be used on a trial basis for the rest of the season. It is a move to make the scrum safer after a number of spinal and neck injuries recently. The scrum will go down in two stages. First the two front rows will come together and then the rest of the scrum will form on the instruction of the referee and only when the half-back is ready to put the ball in.

The proposal, which came from the union’s junior and teen-age committee, was accepted without opposition. The committee’s chairman, Mr M. C. Sullivan, said the idea came largely from Tane Norton, a former All Black hooker who has been prominent in efforts to overcome serious scrum injuries. Because of time needed to communicate the instruction to referees, it was decided not to implement it until June 2 and that it be evaluated at the end of the season, with opinions sought from players, coaches and referees. The chairman, Mr M. R. Barnett, said that Canterbury had done a lot in the

field of injury prevention, and possibly as a result had had no bad injuries in the lower grades. “But one bad injury anywhere is one too many and anything we can do to make the scrum safer we must do. If the trial is successful then hopefully other unions will consider the method,” said Mr Barnett. Suggestions made by the national director of coaching, Mr Bill Freeman, that packing a scrum in two stages would present fresh problems were dismissed as unacceptable. The general view was that locks would work their way into position, and not charge in, as contended by Mr Freeman.