O’Driscoll concerned over scrum call delays

IRELAND captain Brian O’Driscoll has warned of an outbreak of confusion at scrum-time after the introduction of yet another ruling for referees to enforce.

Ireland’s front row appeared decidedly off message to New Zealand official Keith Brown on Saturday, who adhered to demands for consistency in the application of recently-introduced interpretations of the game’s laws.

International Rugby Board referee manager Paddy O’Brien had told the annual IRB High Performance Referees meeting in London that particular attention should be paid to a consistent delivery of the “crouch, touch, pause, engage” scrum sequence and pointed to a 40% decrease in the number of resets in the 2010 Tri-Nations.