Quote Originally Posted by Supersub6 View Post
Part of an interesting article by Alexander Wolf in FluentRugby.

"O’Sullivan analysed a match between Munster and Saracens. There were a total of 17 scrums. On Munster’s put in the average scrum time was 74 seconds while on Saracens’ put in the average scrum time was 55 seconds. This took the total of match time dedicated to scrums to a whopping 20mins.
The Munster and Saracens game wasn’t some crazy outlier. Munster averages 15 scrums a game. And during Ireland’s campaign in the 2019 Six Nations the national side averaged almost 13 scrums a match............"

"............The referee’s clock is usually kept running during a rugby union match and only stops because of injuries or when waiting for the video referee’s decision. This may annoy some fans as lots of time is lost at lineouts and scrums but they fail to realise that if the referee stopped the clock for every scrum and lineout the game could easily last for 3 hours, exhausting both player and spectator."

As is plain to see, the Rugby Union fans are being cheated big time because their games are basically around less than half the length that they should be.
You're spot on Sub, the big problem with Union is the set piece scrum. They've known about it for years, but it seems beyond the wit of the games administrators to do anything about it, so it seems something you just have to live with if you enjoy Union, as I do.

I wonder if the players are even aware of the time it takes up though. In the recent France v England game, we got a pen right under the posts and France had a player sent to the bin for 10 minutes, we were behind, but even so it seemed a no-brainer to kick the 3 points and play 15-14 for ten minutes. Instead we went for a scrum and a possible 7 points. The French knew exactly what to do, they dawdled setting the scrum up, and then made sure it collapsed, this scrum pantomime continued for about three minutes before they knicked the ball off us and hoofed it upfield. We now had a line out on the halfway line and France had less than 7 minutes to play a man down.

I was bemused, did our players not know how much time a scrum can take up, especially when the other team are intent on running the clock. It seems not.