Blog: Going Forward In The Scrum

Australia and Canada, any idea what these two rugby nations have in common?  Canada will face Australia "A" in a World Cup warm-up  match this summer, and when they meet all eyes should strain to view the results of the front-row battles between them.  This is because, in the entirety of this past World Cup cycle, it has been these two nations who have struggled most obviously with finding a stable scrum.

The mistake was not a difficult one to make.  Just a few years ago, countries like New Zealand and Wales were mystifying audiences with forward packs, whose passing statistics bettered their own backlines.  Front row forwards were becoming more mobile, more athletic.  Canada too decided to try and follow this model, and a series of choices were made to devote valuable international tests and limited financial resources to the development of a quicker, more versatile breed of front-row player;  men who could add to Canada's attacking arsenal with their speed and awareness.  But while Welsh and New Zealand forwards were indeed becoming more dynamic, they were also becoming more fearsome in the scrum.  In short, the modern game was asking more of elite front-row players, but it wasn't demanding any less from them at scrum time.

And then, almost immediately after the 2007 World Cup, it began to happen.  Like Australia, Canada began to concede penalty-try after penalty-try.  The weakness became a part of every opposition game plan against the Canadians, and the players began to fear the idea of scrums deep in their own end. Teams whose offences are as potent as Australia's might be able to survive such a setback, not so in Canada. 

With Kevin Tkachuk on the verge of leaving the Glasgow Warriors, Canada will soon be left with no professional front-row players, and the country will also be left with one very sobering fact.  While Australia, which houses no less than five domestic Super Rugby teams, can alter course on such a development decision very easily, Canada, which produces elite athletes in far smaller numbers, cannot.

Followers of the national team will note that progress is being made.  Head Coach Kieran Crowley has spoken often about the necessity of a stable scrum platform, new personnel, like Frank Walsh, Hubert Buydens and Jason Marshall have been brought into the national program, and of course there was this past week's Scrum Camp with All Black Coach Mike Cron, at Shawnigan Lake School. 

So do Canadian fans need to be worried?

This observer says no. Canada is currently the fifteenth ranked team in world rugby, and therefore should not be expected to compete with the likes of France and New Zealand in the scrum.  At the 2011 World Cup, it will be against Tonga and Japan that the test will come.  If the changes that have been made, over the last year or so, can produce a scrum which provides Canada a stable platform against these fellow tier two nations, then a short-term victory can be declared.

One can only hope that Canada's player development system can produce athletes over the next four years, who possess the necessary fundamentals to provide a stronger platform going forward. For come 2015, names like Walsh and Tkachuk will no longer be able to fill the void, and Canada's new breed of front-row talent will be firmly in the spotlight.

---------------------------------------------------

Check out our blog at:   http://theproreport.blogspot.com/