(Photo David Barpal)

THE SCRUM
It's no secret - the USA loses games beause of its scrum. Every other game, at least, a team pins the Eagles in the corner, sets a scrum, and when the inevitable penalty is called, sets another.

You know the scenario. Another penalty, maybe a warning, a yellow card to the tighthead prop, and then a penalty try. Even if that doesn't happen, penalties in the scrum are common, and solid possession off the scrum is very uncommon. It may well be true that some of the penalties were unfair, but that's all a function of the fact that the USA has not been strong come pack-down time. Referees, who are notoriously bad at figuring out what's going on in the front row, penalize the weaker team more often than not - they assume that, up against their tryline, the Eagles will collapse the scrum. Then when it happens, the idea that the opposing team did it to get an easy penalty doesn't occur to them.

But that's all a function of the USA scrum not being good. If it gets better - drives straighter and holds the scrum up more often - the referees will be kinder. The solution? It's not just about personnel. If it were, you could just train players on their own and things would be better. Scrum play is cultural. It starts at the club level. It starts with the national team training and practicing the scrum consistently. Doing that is difficult because, even when the USA team finds time to concentrate on the scrum - such as in the buildup to the ARC or this coming winter when they will have a special scrum-centric forwards' assembly - the top pros won't be there. The Eagles have to train more - scrumming offensively and defensively; working on how to keep up a scrum the opposition is trying to collapse - but something needs to change at the club and college level, too.

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