@Ou Maaikie.
"If they kept being bound to the scrum at that point - what happened to
Alberts when Paige ran past him with only three meters space between the
sideline and the scrum. There is appoint where disengagement is
necessary and does happen."
Well, there you have it.
I am no scrum fundi, but you my friend, knows f@kol about scrums by the look of it. This is not the first time that you have hit your name with a train sleeper as far as the scrum is concerned. Before we deal with the flankers, may I remind you about some of your previous gaffs.
You once made the remark that we were scrumming badly and that you saw Beast crapping on VM because he was not giving any support. Hahaha. Yeah right. The next moment you tried to convince Moz that Beast's scrumming improved when Bakkies Botha was replaced. Only problem was that Bakkies was scrumming behind Jannie and VM was scrumming behind Beast. Yep. The poor scrumming was down to VM and Bakkkies. Nothing to do with the two props.
Then we had the Arg test in Arg where we were properly stuffed and this time around it was solely because of our crap props. Steenkamp was in place of Beast with Loodvoet behind him. The same Loodvoet who waved through the scrummie for a try in that game. The poor scrumming had nothing to do with Loodvoet this time. In addition, Jannie's poor scrumming was solely down to Jannie. Nothing to do with Eben Etzebeth behind him.
OK. Now the flankers and their role. If the flankers had no scrumming role but was there to guard the scrummie, like you seem to suggest, then WTF, would you say, do they need to pack in the scrum? The flanker has to roles. He has to scrum and help his team win the ball. If he is in the defending pack, he has to remain bound until the ball is out of the scrum and then he has to detach from the scrum asap to take up his defending role. Up to that timehe is supposed to be pushing in the scrum. The reason why has to stay fully bound is to make sure that they do not break up prematurely, i.e. before the ball is out of the scrum. Two descriptions of the role of the flankers:
Flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Each team of 15 players includes two flankers, who play in the forwards,[1] and are generally classified as either blindside or openside flankers, numbers 6 and 7 respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they 'flank' each set of forwards. They fight for the ball– most commonly in rucks and mauls.
Flankers also assist in pushing in a scrum, but are expected to detach
from the scrum as early as possible in order to get to the play before
the opposition's forwards...and..
You push and provide some stability
but your main responsibilities are elsewhere.
When a scrum forms it is
rarely central in terms of distance from the touch-lines.
-
the narrow side is called the blind-side
-
the wide side is called the open side
Rugby flankers tend to specialise, with one blind-side flanker
and one open-side flanker.
When the scrum forms they attach to the scrum on the appropriate side,
blind or open.
When the opposition win the scrum they get the ball so your job as a
flanker is to DEFEND.[note that only once the ball is out, do they detach and start defending. Until that time he is part of the scrum and is supposed to be scrumming]
The flankers must remain attached to the scrum until the ball comes out.
The blind-side flanker then breaks from the scrum and must stop
any ball carrier from making ground down the blind side.
One last question, if the main role of the flanker is to defend on teh attacking scrummie, then WTF, in your opinion, is his role in an attacking scrum, i.e. when his own scrummie put s the ball in?
