I am tired of all the talk about the scrum being irrelevant and taking too much time. Did you watch England and Australia play? The scrum was the difference in the game. Without the domination by Marler-Hartley-Wilson the game would certainly have gone the other way. Not since Andrew Sheridan dominated Australia in the 2007 World Cup has the scrum been so decisive.

If you don’t believe me, look at Stuart Lancaster thanking Graham Rowntree at the end of the game. Lancaster knows what happened.

Yes, sometimes setting a scrum slows down the action. It’s not as pretty as wings flying down the touch-line, but it’s part of the game. Certainly the scrum can still be tweaked some to reduce the number of collapses, but quit talking about removing it.

Where would we go with out it? The same place that Rugby League has gone. The scrum provides some of the variety and complexity that makes Union so exciting and vibrant. It needs to stay an integral part of the game.

The only way to remove the scrum from the game is to stop knock-ons. Imagine trying to do that…