Alan Watkins: Time for enlightenment on dark arts of front row

Two years ago, in the final of the Rugby World Cup, the England front row contained two players, Phil Vickery and Steve Thompson, who also played against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.

The recent addition was Andrew Sheridan, the man of the match (though he was closely rivalled, in my view, by Chris Latham, the Australian full-back), who took the place that Trevor Woodman had occupied in the final.

On that previous occasion in Australia, the South African referee, Andre Watson, continually penalised the England front row during the second half. Slowly, the home side caught up to level the scores.

The England manager at the time, Clive Woodward, realised that another successful Australian penalty would win them the cup. Accordingly, he brought off the tight-head Vickery, who was uninjured, substituting him with the old warhorse Jason Leonard, who, though he could play on either side of the scrum, was seen primarily as a loose-head.

But Leonard was not brought on for his scrummaging skills. He was brought on not to scrummage or, at any rate, not to annoy Watson any further. He was in the unfamiliar role of Jason the Peacemaker.

It worked. The referee no longer pointed the finger of reproof at the England front row. And Jonny Wilkinson went on to drop the goal that won the match. So it may be that the player who really won the cup for England was not Wilkinson, but Leonard.

Would Watson have stood idly by when Sheridan was pulverising the Australian front row on Saturday? Would he have gone further, penalising England as he did two years ago? It may be that Sheridan and Vickery were carrying out their duties differently from the way Woodman and Vickery had. We do not know how Watson would have responded.

What we do know is that Saturday's referee, Joel Jutge, behaved differently. Not only did he tolerate the England front row's aggression: more he penalised the Australians for their failure to withstand it. If the tight-head buckled under Sheridan's pressure, he had in effect collapsed the scrum, and was punished.

One explanation is that Jutge is French, and in France powerful scrummaging is admired as much as delicate play by the backs. Before the match, it was reported that the England camp was delighted with the choice of referee. But then, Watson is South African and in South Africa the scrum has traditionally been accorded a higher importance than it has in Australia - or, for that matter, in New Zealand until fairly recently.

All we can safely say is that referees have different views about what front rows may or may not legitimately get up to. Some seasons ago the Ireland prop Mick Fitzpatrick was told sternly: "You're boring, Fitzpatrick." To which he replied: "You're non too entertaining yourself, ref."

Boring in on the hooker by the opposing tight-head is one of the most common offences. One of the unusual features of Saturday's match was that it was a loose-head, Sheridan, who did the damage.

More often than not loose-heads tend to be less disruptive by nature, besides being more active in the loose, because they can detach themselves from the scrum more quickly than any of the other tight five.

What is surely evident is that we must clarify the scope and limits of front-row play before the next World Cup. At the moment the emphasis is, naturally enough, on safety. The suggestion that the number of substitutes should be increased from seven to eight, with a mandatory front row in reserve, is perfectly sensible.

But it does not make the game any safer. On the contrary, it rather assumes injury will occur to the original front row. What it does is make uncontested scrums, as happened on Saturday when Matt Dunning was injured, less likely.

With the honourable exception of Brian Moore, who knows what he is talking about, the television commentators on BBC and Sky Sports are content to gloss over the issue, with heavily jocular references to the front row as a murky area. As they are being paid for their services, this is not good enough. We could do with more enlightenment all round.

In the meantime, I look forward to the encounter between Sheridan and the New Zealand tight-head Carl Hayman on Saturday. Somehow, I do not think he will be able to impose his personality quite as strongly as he did three days ago.