Tinkering is not the answer

A bit late with this one, but it seems as if the IRB have, after all, sanctioned a trial change to the scrummaging laws. Instead of the much maligned "Crouch, Touch, Pause, Ennnnnnnnn.....gage" we now have a new law 20.1 (g) which reads:

The referee will call “crouch” then “touch”. The front rows crouch and using their outside arm each prop touches the point of the opposing prop’s outside shoulder. The props then withdraw their arms. The referee will then call “set” when the front rows are ready. The front rows may then engage. The “set” call is not a command but an indication that the front rows may come together when ready.

Is that really the best that the IRB's Scrum Steering Group can come up with?

Apparently this has been successfully trialled at student level at Stellenbosch and Cambridge but this rather misses the point. It's at the elite level that the problem exists - where winning the "hit" is everything - and simply removing the 'pause' instruction will do nothing to change this.

I'm with Brian Moore on this one. Tinkering is not the solution. To cure rugby's scrummaging ills all one needs to do is apply the existing laws i.e. insist on a correct bind and go back to penalising the early shove and the crooked feed.

Simples.