I’m pretty new to rugby but enjoying watching any sport. Never really cared for it but the last year I’ve been to Wales V Tonga and Bristol v Bath, intending to go to more, but I still don’t understand some bits.
What’s the purpose of a scrum and why so easy to concede a penalty? This South Africa number 9 seems to be keen of kicking it. More than any other team I’ve seen so far
Scrum is a reset, the team that didn't make an error get the put in, but it's competitive, so possible for them to lose the ball. Most of rugby is around the idea that there must be competition for possession. Scrums are tough, the guys at the front have big men pushing them forwards, big men pushing them backwards, and have to stay stable, whilst potentially holding up the hooker, and moving forwards or backwards. The lower you can get, especially as a tighthead, the more likely it is that you can beat your opposite number, but if you're scrummaging low, then the rest of your front row need to as well, and your second row need to be low to ensure they're still pushing and not sliding up. Then going forwards/backwards with uneven pressures is tricky, and it collapses. Collapses can also be done deliberately to prevent yourself going backwards. This is why there are so many penalties, there's a lot of ways to gain an illegal advantage, a lot of ways to illegally stop a team with a legal advantage, and almost all of it comes with a level of danger, which means infringements are penalised rather than free kicks.
The advantage to the 9 kicking it, is that the rest of the backline can be up in line with him, with only the forwards in the ruck being offside (and only then until the winger sprints past them). If the 9 passes back to the 10, then typically that's 7-10m further back (and so the kick already has to be longer), and all your players are further back to be onside. It's rare in my mind, that you're better off passing to your 10, than simply having the 9 take the kick, except for very long territory kicks (such as Ford vs NZ), where you turn the opposition back 3, and have plenty of time to come up in a defensive line.
The boks tend to play safety first rugby, which means take the territory (much easier to defend 50m+ from your tryline than 20m+, watch the Aus game in comparison), hence the 9 kicking so much.
The funny thing is, his kicks weren't that good in the Wales game. They also don't tend to lengthen the ruck to give him protection, instead leave a forward in a blocking position, which I hope Eddie points out to the ref, and we get a cheap penalty out of (and/or SA have to adapt, and are forced into playing differently).
