Review exposes faults

Major problems with the scrum and a drop in the number of tries scored were among the worrying trends highlighted in an IRB statistical review of the Six Nations.

The introduction of a scrum clock into television coverage of rugby matches showed just how much game time is wasted by collapsing and resetting scrums. And the IRB’s review revealed almost 50% of scrums in this year’s Six Nations collapsed with almost 40% producing penalties or free kicks.

A staggering 21 minutes were consumed by forming and resetting scrums in Ireland’s 32-14 victory over Scotland in the Aviva Stadium. When compared with the 2005 Six Nations, this year’s competition had nearly twice as many collapsed scrums and almost three times as many penalties or free kicks from the scrum.