PACKING THE SCRUM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21361, 2 June 1939, Page 7

PACKING THE SCRUM

PLEA FOR UNIFORMITY By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON. May 31. The necessity for the New Zealand team having a settled method of packing a 3-4-1 scrum before the tour of South Africa next year was debated at a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union to-night. The Canterbury union wrote stating that it had been reported that the New Zealand union had given a ruling to the New Zealand Referees’ Association to the effect that “teams could not legally commence to push in the scrum until the ball on being put in touched the ground.’’ The Canterbury Union asked if this was correct and suggested that any rulings given by the New Zealand union should be circulated to all unions with a view to uniformity. The Canterbury union’s query was referred to the Referees’ Ruling Committee of the New Zealand union. Mr J. H. Parker, a member of the 1924 All Blacks said there was need for a uniform method of putting down the 3-4-1 scrum in New Zealand. At present no two teams were putting down the scrum in the same way. It would be unfair to ask the New Zealand forwards when they left for South Africa next year to pack the scrum in a different manner from what they had been doing in New Zealand. Mr S. S. Dean said he had had difficulty in packing the scrum with the Maori team which toured Fiji last year, some of the forwards had been trained under Messrs A. McDonald, W. J. Wallace and N. McKenzie, and all believed that their method of packing the scrum was correct. In the end he had advised them to try out all tjie different methods to discover which was best. Mr A. C. Kitto said that they could not take the initiative away from the teams. Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Hughes agreed, remarking that no matter what system the New Zealand Union might lay down, the captains of teams ■would have their own views on the subject. Mr Parker said he believed that if they were to set experts like Messrs J. T. Burrows, V. Cavanagh and A. McDonald to lay down the method of packing the 3-4-1 scrum, it would do a lot of good for the game in the Dominion and greatly help the All Blacks in South Africa next year. It was suggested that the subject might be brought before the New Zealand Rugby Council at its next meeting.