The Three Ts

THE GAME WITHIN A GAME

The mighty prop forward - the unsung hero of rugby past and present.

It takes a very special kind of man to stand up and say, "I will play in the front row!" No other position on the field comes close to the in your face intensity that the prop forward and his hooker encounter and in fact thrive on taking the opponent on physically and mentally in that series of games within the game known to rugby lovers as THE SCRUM.

The serum must surely rank amongst the most fascinating facets of rugby yet is overlooked by many as a contest of brawn taking place in the total absence of any intelligent thought. I have often heard comment passed that prop forwards wear their IQ's on their backs but then I just smile and walk away in the knowledge that whoever made that comment has never had the privilege of playing in the engine room. A powerful prop forward who lacks the ability to think through his game and adapt to his opponents will have as much success as a battleship that has lost all its electronic surveillance equipment and is charging around madly in the ocean -  it will soon be dispatched by a smaller, cleverer opponent. To play successfully in the front row requires a special combination of brains, brawn and courage around which a team is often built - when the scrum goes forward the team does well!

The scrum is a set piece in a rugby match where eight players from each team bind tightly onto their team-mates and compete for possession of the ball by trying to push their opponents off the ball. It sounds simple and boring but nothing could be further from the truth! The three most important ingredients for successful scrumming are the three T's - Technique, Timing and Teamwork.

Scrumming technique rests upon a few basic principles that strive to maximize strength, grip, control and safety in an endeavour to secure your own ball or disrupt your opponents feed. A scrum functions well when all eight forwards combine to form ONE potent unit rather than individuals working independently of each other. In this case the single unit is far stronger and more effective than the sum of its parts! A few basic rules for solid scrumming would be:

1. Always keep your head up and your back straight.

2. Do not straighten your legs until the ball is in otherwise you lose your pushing power.

3. Bind as tightly as you can with both your arms and pull together even tighter when the ball comes in.

4. Keep as many studs on the ground as possible.

5. Push forward and slightly up (remembering that the law does not allow you to push you opponent up to the point that he comes out of the scrum and can incur an injury). Pushing slightly upwards weakens your opponents footing and gives you a slight advantage. The good old days of popping a man out of the scrum are sadly gone but let me not criticize the wisdom of those who make such decisions!

6. Push forward together on your own scrum feed otherwise you wheel the scrum and provide poor quality ball for your backline. There are occasions when a slight wheel on your own scrum is required but that is more the exception than the norm.

7. Engage as vigorously as the referee allows - this gets you on the front foot and places the opponents under pressure from the start.

These rules help mould the basics for good scrumming but do not make you a good scrummager nor do they make a pack of forwards formidable. Once you have mastered these you need to focus on the other two points of Timing and Teamwork.

Timing is the element that separates the average sportsmen from the good ones. Ask any golfer or cricketer about the value of good timing and be prepared for a lecture in skill, angles and practice. A serum functions well when all 8 members operate together as one and therefore react at the same time. Binding and "exploding" as a unit takes many hours of practice and buckets of sweat but the rewards are well worth the effort and can mean the difference between winning and losing the game. The subtle nuances of foot placement, angle of exertion and the strength obtained from correct positioning of the shoulders of the locks and flanks all comes with training. The correct moment when to explode and the ability to read an opponent only comes from experience.

Experience is accumulated far more easily when the eight members of the pack become a team and work together as a team helping one another through tough times and enjoying the moments of success when a move worked or a tighthead was taken.

As a pack grows in stature, it "clicks". It becomes a weapon that can destroy teams physically and mentally and can easily turn the tide in a match.

The cliché that there is no "I" in team is certainly still true - one man letting the team down can have disastrous results and lead to loss of confidence. Team spirit and teamwork ore irreplaceable.

The prop forward does not only scrum however and therefore we need to look briefly at what constitutes a good front ranker.

We speak now of Modern Rugby but I believe that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Props still need to scrum well, support in the line-out, ruck and maul, i.e. they must perform the basic functions well or they find themselves warming the bench. A good prop is one who does all these things and has the skills to run, pass, sidestep, dummy, switch, etc., and of course put in those big tackles that make them famous. A prop who does the basics well and is an accomplished ball player is worth his weight in platinum.

Fitness is a key element that has kept many a good prop back because his focus has been more on strength than anything else. A combination of strength, suppleness, fitness and a turn of speed will a stand a prop in good stead for his career.

It amazes me how seldom a prop gets noticed as an outstanding player in a match yet is soon noticed when the slightest things go wrong.

The humble prop is the backbone of a rugby team and deserves for more credit than is given to him - he is truly the unsung hero of rugby past and present.