WHAT is it with the scrums in modern-day rugby union?

I’ve been watching the opening matches in the Six Nations tournament and, being an ex-left prop, pay particular attention to the scrums.

We are told before the tournament even starts and the massive weights of the men partaking in each country’s scrum.

When I was at Archbishop Holgate Grammar School, we used to play rugby at Archie’s sports field (where the hospital now stands) under the tutelage of sports master Harry Watts.

The two props were the biggest lads from the class Harry was instructing and the hooker was the smallest.

The hooker would swing from we two props and endeavour to hook the ball back through the scrum to the scrum-half, who had raced to the back of the scrum to gather the ball and proceed with it.

If the ball hadn’t been put exactly between the two sets of props and hookers, Harry would halt play and make us repeat the scrum.

Nowadays, after the ref has told the scrum to set, the scrum-half doesn’t aim the ball to go between the two sets of props and hookers, he puts it directly into the second row.

This means the opposition has absolutely no chance of benefitting from the scrum. Pure farce.

In league they don’t go through all that play-acting in their scrums. League is faster and the five tackles rule is a brilliant innovation.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge