Whenever a controversy pops up about scrummaging, social media will often turn to ex-pro props to explain what’s going on.

First of all, to get this off my chest, any former professional front five player with a Twitter account they actually post on is deeply suspicious behaviour. It’s one step up on the ladder from posting on Reddit. Instagram is fine. Yes, I want to see what you’ve been barbequing. Have a like. Yes, that is a nice picture of a tractor. That’s it. That’s where the line is. Oh, you’re tweeting? What’s next? Dancing with the Stars?

Secondly, watch enough Former International Prop Weighs In On Scrum Controversy tweet storms and you’ll find that, wouldn’t you know it, they always, every single time, conclude that their former team and/or teammate was actually in the right the entire time. Clockwork.

1. We were robbed. Anyone who says we weren’t robbed is a cheat who doesn’t understand the scrum.
2. The referee got it bang on, and [other team] saying they were robbed is laughable, they don’t understand the scrum.

If you’re a former professional prop, I want to see two things from you on social media, and they fall into very narrow categories; one, how your beer brand is going, and two, you either looking much heavier or way, way lighter than your playing days. That’s it. Anything other than that, and cringe follows.

Whenever there’s a controversy over scrums, ignore every single prop who played professionally and is posting about it on Twitter. Save your time. Save the calories it takes to run your eyes over the post and parse the information therein.

Ask a referee instead, and you’ll soon find out the only thing that matters in any given scrum because…

Referees decide what a good scrum is, not props.  

So when you’re assessing a scrummaging performance, as I’m sure the Bulls will at some stage after losing this final primarily off the back of it, you need to focus on what the officials are seeing that informs their decision-making first and foremost. If you are starting from any other point, you’re off to a bad start, and you’ll never really understand why decisions went against your team.

That doesn’t mean that packs and props are just powerless puppets, far from it, but you need to see what the officials are looking for to decide what is legal and illegal scrummaging, and who to award game-altering penalties to off the back of those decisions.

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As a general rule, the first five scrums set the tone for any given match.

Of course, things can change off the bench if one side has a scrum-focused front row to dominate the last third of a contest – and some teams have just that – but for most games, referees have their minds made up by the fifth scrum, whenever that is. On Saturday evening, the torrential rain that had fallen on Dublin for the previous three days and during the game itself was always going to lead to a key scrummaging battle.

Both sides like to kick, both sides have scrum penalty counts that stack up with any team in the club game, and both have key players who, on their day, dictate the scrum as a battleground. For Leinster, that was Andrew Porter. For the Bulls, it was this guy right here – Wilco Louw.

I’ll add for completeness that the Bulls were without Gerhard Steenekamp, who’s been outside March with a knee injury that got multiple infections and complications post-surgery. Steenekamp is who I was thinking of when I mentioned Jan Hendrik Wessels on my No Prep Preview, but to be fair, I didn’t do any prep. Steenekamp is a destructive scrummager who, in combination with Louw, makes for one of the most fearsome scrummaging units in the game. Wessels is certainly a big boy, but he’s not the same level of scrummager as Steenekamp.

Heavyweights

I said before the game that Louw is the kind of prop that Porter typically has trouble with, and while I still think that’s true in general, Porter definitely outsmarted and outhustled Louw when it mattered on this occasion. Jake White left Louw on for 65 minutes – a good 12 minutes over his seasonal average – to try and get something from the scrum, but the Bulls were as aimless as I’ve seen them at any point in the last three years at that point. Off came Louw.

Porter did a great job of stymying Louw, but Clarkson did incredibly well on Wessels for the key part of this contest and showcased his experience as a scrummager from the very first put-in. Wessels is or was, up until this season, primarily a hooker who made his first ever appearance as a loosehead as a professional for the Springboks against Portugal, and only took to playing loosehead full time this season; Clarkson made him pay early with the kind of crafty tricks a relative newbie to the position wasn’t able for.

But to get a read on how it happened, we’ve got to go back to 02:45 on the match clock for the first scrum of the afternoon, with a Leinster put in just inside the Bulls’ 10m line. This scrum was reset to give you the full context.

First thing you’ll see is Clarkson trying to pull in and unbalance Wessels to use the Bulls’ loosehead’s big entry against him. Clarkson wants to sell to the referee that Wessels is collapsing, with his elbow down. Elbow Down is the big trigger point that referees are looking for in most, not all, cases.

The real battle is only partially visible in this clip.

Look at how low Porter is, and how his “finish” to the action is down and in.

He’s setting a picture that Louw is trying to bring him down and hoping that the Assistant Referee buys the finishing angle as proof of Louw boring in, rather than Porter elbowing his way to a penalty.

Let’s go to the ensuing reset scrum, where Leinster win the first penalty of the day off the back of Porter successfully selling the gimmick to the assistant referee, who called the penalty for the referee Andrea Piardi.

The penalty was called for Wessels going to his knee, but the AR is also calling a penalty on White (Louw) with the Bulls’ water-guy convinced it’s gone the other way.

Why is he convinced?

Elbow Down.

This would be a penalty to the Bulls if Louw could get forward movement on Porter, but Porter is denying him that by warping him down and in.

Even with this, Louw could sell Porter collapsing if the Bulls loosehead side can get at Clarkson, but the Leinster tighthead did a great job of pulling Wessels off balance and then shifting binds to send him backwards on the second shove.

This is the key moment.

Wessels flies in to try and use his power to overwhelm Clarkson, but Clarkson shifts his weight on the hit, unbalances Wessels off his feet, and the first scrum goes to Leinster.

Without that little weight slip, the Bulls would have almost certainly got the forward movement that sells a penalty for them, but Clarkson did a number on Wessels while Porter frustrated Louw.

1 Leinster – Bulls 0

On the next scrum on twelve minutes, Porter gives away a handy free kick on a Bulls put-in, right when they’re looking to pump Leinster backwards, but this is also a Leinster win, as the Bulls can’t scrum again – they have to kick.

The Bulls miss an opportunity to dominate Leinster on their put-in, which is another mini-win for Leinster in the perception battle.

1.5 Leinster – Bulls 0

In the 16th minute, Leinster made huge strides in the perception battle with this penalty won on the fourth scrummage of the game by Tom Clarkson over Wessels, who seemed to be firmly headwrecked at this point. Wessels is an inexperienced scrummager, but he’s been able to survive at loosehead because, like Porter when he first switched back, he’s incredibly powerful. He’s 6’4″ and 120kg, so he can usually overpower any middling tightheads he’s faced this season, and even crafty veterans have struggled to live with his power at times.

On this scrum, you can nearly hear him screaming at himself to get in early and dominate Clarkson, who, on paper at least, isn’t as strong or as powerful as Wessels. Watch what happens.

Porter holds Louw to a stalemate on his side, but Wessels is clearly trying to hold Porter down before getting an angle and powering in and up.

Problem #1: Elbow Down.

Andrea Piardi is looking right at it, so he’s immediately primed to look negatively on anything that happens with Wessels from here on out.

Problem #2: Wessels kicks out his heel to start the bore after he’s gotten under Clarkson, which Piardi also sees.

Clarkson can feel the weight shift and drives down. Wessels can’t handle that lateral movement at the angle he’s shifted to or slip his bind, so he very visibly collapses inwards with his elbow down.

How would you referee this in that context?

It’s a clear penalty to Leinster. Clarkson doesn’t have to overpower Wessels or dominate him; he just has to let him beat himself, and knowing when to do that is half the battle.

2.5 Leinster – Bulls 0

At this point, the Bulls look very much like a team under pressure. Wessels’ inexperience as a scrummager has been completely exposed by Clarkson, who is the same age but is practically a crafty veteran when it comes to scrummaging relative to the Bulls man. Porter has prevented Louw from getting any kind of forward movement on the other side, which has created the perception that Leinster are the dominant scrum.

On the fifth scrum, the Bulls finally win a penalty, but the table is already set and, 14 points down, the realisation is setting in that they have no reliable way of advancing up the field with the ball if they can’t win their scrum penalties at the volume they’ll need.

All the stuff from the previous scrums is here, but with some adjustments. Look at Clarkson trying to rug pull Wessels, but getting unbalanced himself when Wessells rug pulls him first and, as a result, the Leinster tighthead side stays static.

That exposes Porter trying to warp Louw down and in on the Leinster loosehead side. Porter pulls down – elbow down – and warps in to sell the bore like he did on the very first scrum and reset, but without Clarkson moving forward it looks like what it is.

Leinster 2.5 – Bulls 1

And that was that. The table was set. The perception was that Leinster were the dominant scrum and there was very little the Bulls could do to change that.

The next scrum was ten minutes later and even though Porter was clearly dropping and warping inward to keep Louw at bay and Wessels had worked out that Clarkson was rug pulling him, the officials were set in their minds.