Donal Lenihan
WRITING in last Monday’s Irish Examiner after the drama of the two semi finals, I expressed the following opinion: “The Welsh could even have been cynical and withdrawn replacement prop Paul James who was savaged in the scrum after the departure of Jones, with some form of injury and insisted on uncontested scrums to ease their plight.
“That would have enabled them to keep their most potent attacker Jamie Roberts positioned in midfield instead of utilising his considerable bulk to stabilise their scrum on every Welsh put in. I can think of other sides that would have had no hesitation in going down that route.”
It is worth remembering that England had two of their coaches suspended in this tournament for ball tampering allegations.
No surprise then to hear Warren Gatland declare yesterday when announcing the Welsh team to face Australia in the bronze final that he and his fellow coaches discussed faking injury in the front row after Adam Jones had been forced from the field, thus leading to uncontested scrums.
In the end, to their credit, they decided not to because it would not have been the right thing to do. Compare that to the whole Bloodgate saga surrounding Leinster’s Heineken cup semi-final win over Harlequins in 2009 when Dean Richards and his coaching staff stepped completely over the mark and even compounded the problems in the aftermath by fabricating the issues surrounding the event.
That was completely and utterly unacceptable. However in relation to the issue of uncontested scrums in the circumstances that the Welsh found themselves, I’m not so sure others would have been so pure. The IRB have dug the hole for themselves with this one. Uncontested scrums have no longer become an issue in the Rabo Direct or Heineken cup as you are required to carry two props on the bench. This allows for a specialist tight head and loose head to be accommodated and as a consequence an injury to one of the starting props is adequately catered for.
For whatever reason, and my information is that it could well be financial, international rugby only caters for one prop on the bench. Therefore the nominated replacement is one that has experience of playing on both sides of the scrum even though he may not be your second choice on one of those positions. Tom Court has filled the role for Ireland even though he is primarily a loose head prop.
Wales ran into this problem on Saturday with Paul James. He regularly appears at loose head for the Ospreys with Adam Jones at tight head with the same club. Therefore when Jones was forced off after only ten minutes the last day, James was thrown into action on a side of the scrum that he has seen little or no action for some time. Against the French that is crucial at the best of times but with only seven forwards, it proved catastrophic and Jones was eaten alive.
In addition I felt Wales got it wrong in using Jamie Roberts to bolster their scrum. They needed him in midfield and would have been better off putting Mike Phillips on the side of the scrum on their put in — he played in the back row until his late teens — and shifting Shane Williams to scrum half where he also played for much of his career. Indeed in the past he has covered that position for Wales in an injury crisis.
It now transpires that the IRB are privately stunned with Gatland’s revelations, despite the fact he added “morally, I made the decision that it wasn’t the right thing to do”. I can tell you there isn’t a club, provincial or international side who haven’t discussed that situation at some stage and many who have manipulated the situation to introduce uncontested scrums. For the IRB to declare themselves privately stunned says something about just how far out of touch they are with reality especially when this whole scenario could be solved overnight by catering for two replacement props on the bench. When will they ever learn?
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/AvGHXkud0q4/post.aspx
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