1
Debate over Murrayfield scrum finale is still raging days later
By Liam Heagney
Days after the result-confirming series of clock-in-the-red scrums at Murrayfield and the debate over whether England should have been awarded a penalty by referee Ben O’Keeffe rumbles on with sub prop Joe Marler the latest to join in. Trailing 17-20, added time in last Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener in Edinburgh saw the visitors attempt to wrangle an infringement from Scotland at the set-piece.
The Kiwi official wasn’t buying it, however, and the ball was eventually played away from the base of the umpteenth reset scrum. England were to go on and lose the ball at a resulting breakdown and possession was kicked dead by Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg to confirm his team’s win.
Loosehead Marler was at the coalface for England in that nerve-shredding conclusion, repeatedly packing down against Scottish sub tighthead WP Nel, and while his focus now is most certainly on his team’s round two clash next Sunday away to Italy, he still took time at an RFU media briefing to reflect back on one of the major talking points to arise from the Murrayfield loss.
“Yes, I did fancy our chances of getting a penalty,” admitted Marler, who played 17 minutes as a second-half England replacement for Ellis Genge.
“I was disappointed with at least one of them which I thought on another day might have been given, but I am also very aware of the situation that we were all in.
“It was a very high pressured situation, there was a lot on that call and I can understand that unless someone is being presented a completely and utterly dominant picture they would be less inclined to give the penalty. I’d have liked a penalty. It might have given us an opportunity to draw or win the game but such is life, we tried our best and we will take the learnings from that.”
Asked if the penalty he felt England merited would have been given if that same scrum had taken place earlier in the game, Marler added: “Again, hindsight is wonderful. My gut tells me it might have been a penalty 20 minutes in but it was the 83rd minute and there is a lot riding on that.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
3
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
4
Government provides bleak assessment on the state of the Premiership
5
Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
Go to comments