Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell says 'bring back scrums'

Packing down was abolished on health grounds when Betfred Super League resumed in August following its coronavirus shutdown, but Powell reckons the sport is better off with scrums, even if they are uncontested.

He insisted: “People say they don’t like scrums, but I think we have seen they are necessary.

“The shortening of numbers to create attacking opportunities has been a big miss.”

Play is now restarted with a hand-over following a knock-on or kick to touch and the Tigers boss feels that has given the defending side an advantage.

“If we are not going to have scrums then you need to have something different there,” he stated.

“It looks terrible - the markers aren’t going in and the referee is telling them to go in.

“I don’t think you should be able to do that when there isn’t a scrum because that benefits the defensive team.

“When the ball is kicked into touch there is a full line of defence, but when you kick into touch and have a scrum there is a bit more of a threat there.”

He added: “We want to see the ball in play, we don’t want to see it kicked over the sideline.

“Every team is kicking over the sideline so you can set up, have a set line and belt the opposition.

“I don’t think that looks great; it stops the game and slows it down too much.”

It is not yet known if scrums will be reintroduced next season.

Powell joked: “Maybe we should have social distanced scrums - a couple of metres apart.

“It has got to be better than what we are seeing at the moment.

“I am not sure what they are going to do about it next year; that will probably defend on the virus and depend where we are at come March.”

Meanwhile, Tigers’ players have begun their off-season break.

Powell said his squad will report in for a three-day camp, at the Jungle, in December before starting pre-season training on January 4.

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