Doing a Dunning

The Waratahs’ predicament when they ran out of specialist props in their Vodacom Super 12 game against the Stormers contains alarming implications for rugby.

Apart from the fact that the gambit Bob Dwyer tried to pull with his roly-poly prop Matt Dunning - the Sydney Football Stadium’s answer to Ollie le Roux - might now have been given a name, hence the headline on this story, it has drawn attention to an area in the laws that is often abused - the custom of “spelling” prop forwards.

I have little doubt that the Waratahs were fully intent on revolving their props because some minutes before Rod Moore came off, theatrically holding his limp arm in a loop of his jersey, Dunning had left his seat to start warming up. Reserve prop Cameron Blades was by then on the field… as the originial substitution for Dunning.

The practice of revolving props is not new. Ian McIntosh at the Sharks was the first to spot the possibilities of the safety provisions, which dictate that a team has to have competent forwards, ie. props, in the frontrow to prevent neck injuries, with the way he used to rotate Adrian Garvey, Ollie le Roux and Robbie Kempson.

Mac realised that because you had to have a prop on the frontrow you could bloodbin one of your props and then bring him back again because of the safety rule. Often there was no intention that the last man to leave would have to return.

In fact, it had become such common practice that I’m sure Dwyer was caught out when Dunning hurt himself and could not continue and New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker ruled that a player who had left the field injured, Moore, could not return.

The plan backfired because both Moore and Dunning had gone off injured - neither because of blood - and Dwyer did not have another prop on the bench.

The referee was thus forced to call for uncontested scrums for fear of being held responsible if an incompetent forward were to be injured.

This is understandable, but it does not alter the fact that the Stormers were prevented from exploiting what could have been a crucial advantage.

It raises the question whether a team that is struggling with props could not fake injuries to deliberately engineer uncontested scrums?

Certainly, with virtually all the Super12 teams struggling to field a full complement of proficient props it would not be surprising if the situation of a team running out of props arises again.

Another, far more frightening implication, is that teams will start to make quite sure there is some blood evident on a player - especially a prop - taken off the field to be able to claim that it was a bloodbin substitution rather than a genuine injury.

The English hooker Richard Cockrill reportedly fell out of favour with Clive Woodward for alluding, in a book he wrote, to the practice of players being given little nicks by the medical staff (the eyebrows and ear lobes are said to be favourite spots) or removing scabs from old wounds to ensure a trickle of blood so that if they were to be taken off they would be able to return.

The system is open to such abuse that it may be time for the IRB to increase the amount of reserves to eight - with the proviso that the additional player has to be a prop.