THE SCRUM PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 October 1928, Page 2

THE SCRUM PROBLEM

VARYING INTERPRETATIONS Mr G. E. Beamish, who accompanied the team as New Zealand Press Association correspondent, informed a "Star" reporter that the South African interpretation of "hooking" in the scrums was the greatest difficulty the All Blacks had to contend with. According to South African, interpretation the outside hooker of the New Zealand scrum was rendered powerless to assist in hooking the ball because he was debarred from using his inside foot. He had to stand and let the ball go past, and before it got within range of the All Blacks' inside hooker it was hooked by the opposition. Invariably the oall was hooked down the passage between the South African "loose head" and their middle man. The New Zealand players maintained, in fact, that the South Africans trespassed their own rule by persisting in hooking the hall before it got past the New Zealand outside hooker.

Still, as the South African referees allowed it, the New Zealanders had to devise a counter-move. The adoption of the. wing-forward as a "loose head," or third man who packed down in the front row on whatever side the ball was put in, assisted the All Blacks' capability to get the ball. But it was not till "the end of the tour, when the "loose head" had learned how to pack and push as part of the scrum, that the difficulty was reallv mastered. Tn the final Test the All'Blacks got the ball almost when they wanted it—which was the secret of their great win in that match. A ROCK-LIKE SCRUM. "Who will ever forget that rock-like All Black scrum?" added Mr Beamish. "The Springboks were routed just as the Ail Blacks were in the first Test at Durban. The New Zealand scrum in the last Test was almost a 3-3-2 scrum, although the traditional formation was not altered. The two hookers still packed on either side of the middle man in the Springbok front row, but every time a scrum was formed Stewart went down as a loose head, mostly on the blind side. He was not the loose head in the sense that the All Blacks used it in the second Test at Johannesburg. He was there to do his hard pushing with the rest of them. And he did it. He did notJbreak as he had done when playing the loose head game in previous matches. Theoretically, he was not part of the scrum. Yet, in the way he packed, he was actually a front row man. It was in that solid packing and by playing Stewart in the manner in which he was played that we were able to beat the Snringboks at their own game. That solid scrummaging was the deciding factor in the match."