Andrew Hore happy with new scrum laws

LIAM NAPIER


Last updated 13:30 01/08/2013


Andrew Hore did not have long for chitchat today - he had to catch a 1pm southbound flight to make club rugby training.

The veteran hooker left the All Blacks' two-day training camp in Auckland for the airport. Without the quick dash home, he might have missed selection for Maniototo's crucial semifinal against Arrowtown this weekend.

After a disastrous season for the Highlanders, Hore, 34, is determined to help the "Maggots" win at their home ground, the Offal Pit, and reach the final.

"We've got a really important game coming up," he said.

"We've got the semifinal against Arrowtown at home. Anyone in Ranfurly with nothing to do can come down and watch.

"It will be a good game in the Offal Pit. If selected, I'll be out there. I've got to go to training tonight to make the squad."

Meanwhile, Hore is enthusiastic about the new scrum engagement laws that the All Blacks tested while training at North Harbour Stadium.

The "crouch, bind, set" call will be implemented in the Rugby Championship.

Effectively, props will be required to lock arms rather than just touch. The move is aimed to enhance player welfare and decrease frustrating stoppages caused by reset scrums.

Hore's early impressions were positive. Not one scrum collapsed during the All Blacks' 30-minute session.

"The hit is obviously not as hard, but your eyes are still watering and we didn't have the whole eight on," he said.

"It's going to be interesting to see who comes up with ways to use it best. It's pretty exciting to keep scrums in the game.

"It's the first scrum session we've had in a long time where there were no collapses. That's got to be going in the right direction."

With more emphasis placed on halfbacks to put the ball in straight, there is the possibility of more tightheads.

"There's going to be nowhere to hide. You can't dive to the ground because you're locked in," Hore said on whether there would be a strong contest.

"We've been coached well over the years, so we should be pretty good.

"The hookers are going to find it a bit harder to hook the ball. There are rules where the halfback has to put it down the middle.

"We'll chip away at it next week. Hopefully by the time we play the Aussies we've got a plan."

Hore would not be drawn into baiting the Australians before the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney on August 17.

"We don't know their team yet. When you're in the All Blacks, you try to knock over every team you play," he said.

"I was watching a bit of the semifinal against the Bulls. It's a pretty good forward pack the Brumbies got penalties against, so they're improving."


http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/a...new-scrum-laws

"It's the first scrum session we've had in a long time where there were no collapses. That's got to be going in the right direction."

Hopefully that translates to a match situation...

That (where he said props won't be able to dive) will be interesting all right. After the embarrassment of a few years ago the Australian scrum has improved. Through the early period of that improvement experienced opposition props won a lot of penalties by taking the piss. It's lessened and some of them are even getting pinged for it occasionally.

PS. Maybe the Mungos should try it. Last night the Tigers pushed the Titains back 5 meters in a scrum near Gold Coast's line. BUt still couldn't win the "Tighthead". I wished they had just to see if the ref woulda pinged them for pushinmg in the scrum :P

I love watching the scrums even from an early age it used to fascinate me watching these 16 big blokes crunch into each other time and time again. Lets hope it improves the game for viewers but we don't lose the magic of the scrum

The maggots playing at the offal pit - how could anyone not want to go to that....

Having played in the front row for many years, I think a lot of the scrum collapsing comes down to "playing for penalties". In the amateur days there didn't seem to be the number of scrum collapses we see now - granted, players are bigger now, and there's more pressure on the front rows. But I think they should take penalties away from scrum offences (apart from offsides), and just make them free-kicks.