HELP!!! Scrum Feed in 1970

[Adelaide Tiger]

This should be a topic that might just need one reply to explain the scrum feed to me.

Just caught the last 15 minutes of the first test of the 1970 series GB v Australia on Foxtel.  Can someone please explain to me why GB got the feed at the scrum after GB knocked on in front of their own posts; Hardisty kicked the ball out on the full when he was about 20 yards from GB posts; Atkinson was bundled into touch when in GB’s half.

I played RL at school in the mid 70’s but I cannot remember the rules about who got the scrum feed in such situations.

[Archie Gordon]

Nowadays you get head and feed if non-offending. Back then, it was head or feed (with feed down the middle or a blast from the ref's whistle).

I think.

[Dunbar]

Seems bizzare now to think that the offending team got the feed after an error but it was 1982 when the scrum feed and loose-head was given to the non-offending team.

[Adelaide Tiger]

27 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Seems bizzare now to think that the offending team got the feed after an error but it was 1982 when the scrum feed and loose-head was given to the non-offending team.

What’s even more bizarre - or worrying - to me is that if the offending team always got the feed after committing an error I cannot remember it!

[Dunbar]

Prior to 1982 it was defending half back to feed scrum with attacking side having the loose-head.  So based on field position rather than who had offended.

Only in 1982 did it become who had offended and head and feed to non offending team.

[Wolford6]

In the 1970's, hookers had a chance. Following an offence by team A, Team B fed the scrum but the front row's heads were locked so that Team A prop and hooker were closer to the feed than the  Team A prop and hooker. A good hooker (I wasn't) could regularly pinch the ball in the scrum. Hookers would not heel the ball, like in a RU scrum, but swing on their props and throw one foot across the tunnel. Intimidation was quite common with having the opposition second rows stamp on your foot. That's why scrums invariably broke up and looked a mess.

Rugby Union scrums are like doing the set-patterns bit in ice dancing. RL scrums were like doing the freestyle shows in ice dancing, requiring the front rows to have a degree of skill, daring and bravery.  The hookers also needed to have the X-Factor .... sheer crass stupidity.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Wolford6

[Agbrigg]

I seem to remember that it was where the scrum was called rather than the reason. 

i.e if you are defending any scrum for any reason in your half , you always get head and feed. Once you are in the opposition's half, head and feed always goes to them. 

However !!!! I also seem to remember if you got a penalty and decided to kick for field position, the re start was always by a scrum (the tap start was not invented) The team that had earned the penalty then had scrum feed irrespective of field position.

Don't shoot me down guys, but that what I recollect 

Edited October 8, 2023 by Agbrigg

[Dunbar]

46 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:

I seem to remember that it was where the scrum was called rather than the reason. 

i.e if you are defending any scrum for any reason in your half , you always get head and feed. Once you are in the opposition's half, head and feed always goes to them. 

However !!!! I also seem to remember if you got a penalty and decided to kick for field position, the re start was always by a scrum (the tap start was not invented) The team that had earned the penalty then had scrum feed irrespective of field position.

Don't shoot me down guys, but that what I recollect 

From 1963 the team kicking to touch after a penalty were given the head and feed.

[Rodill Rover]

5 hours ago, Agbrigg said:

I seem to remember that it was where the scrum was called rather than the reason. 

i.e if you are defending any scrum for any reason in your half , you always get head and feed. Once you are in the opposition's half, head and feed always goes to them. 

That's how I remember it

[paul hicks]

when you think about it well thats what made the scrums a contest rather than a farce

[Agbrigg]

On 09/10/2023 at 01:06, paul hicks said:

when you think about it well thats what made the scrums a contest rather than a farce

Back in the days the shouts of 'FEEDING !'  were as common as get em inside. You had scrums often getting re set, hooker's penalised for striking early, penalties for feeding and the really sneaky one was the loose arm , were either the prop or the hooker would use his hand to hook the ball.  I am not too sure if things were better back then. However what I can add, is that a good hooker was like gold dust due to the amount of ball possession they could win.

[The Masked Poster]

I'd actually like to see a modern day RL game with the old scrum shenanigans, just to see if it made it more exciting. 

I feel (but don't know) that it could. 

Edited October 10, 2023 by The Masked Poster

[Wolford6]

In the old days, because of the mechanics of the scrum, many hookers were small and wiry and the props were tall and heavily built. They were specialists. Nowadays, forwards are more adaptable to different positions.

The exception was Tony Fisher, but I think he frightened his opposite number into barely striking. I used to know a wagon driver for a firm where Tony Fisher was the manager. Tony must have been in his fifties at the time; all the drivers were scared of him losing his temper.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Wolford6