WHILE browsing the Guardian's website yesterday, I chanced upon a link to a You Tube clip: the entire, nearly one-hour long BBC Rugby Special film of the English North Division's 1979 win over the Ninth All Blacks, at Otley.
To be fair, Graham Mourie's Ninth All Blacks were not a vintage ABs outfit. Sure, they had Stu Wilson and Bernie Fraser on the wings, Andy Dalton at hooker, Andy Haden in the boilerhouse and Mourie and Murray Mexted in the back row, but, many of the other nine were barely household names in their own household.
On the other hand, the Northern Division XV included some stellar names - the future 'Cotton Traders' millionaires, old Fran himself and Steve Smith were there - the back row of Roger Uttley, Peter Dixon and Tony Narey would surely get en-bloc votes in any competition to name England's best back row, while the XV was captained by Bill Beaumont.
The North won, and won well, while there were some cracking tries scored. But, for all that, had ABs full back Richard Wilson had his kicking boots on, the ABs would have won - he left some 18 points out there.
OK, we accept that the modern game offers higher levels of fitness; 21st centurry defences are tighter than those of 35-years ago, whilst laws changes in the intervening years have changed many aspects of the game.
But, for an old dinosaur like me, that Otley match still offered more entertainment than we get today.
One area which did strike me was the scrum. NOT ONE scrum caved-in. Indeed, the referee, my old pal Alan Hosie, only had to intervene three times, to square things up and to remind Fran Cotton he wasn't binding to his, Hosie's, satisfaction - not that Fran was actually doing anything wrong under the scrum laws of the time.
Most times, the front rows locked together when the ball was well away from the set-piece, but, there was no shoving and jostling, and, as I mentioned above, no going to ground and having a re-set.
WHY THE FUCK cannot we have this today? The basic principle of the scrum - that it is a means of re-starting play after it has broken down - has not changed; it is still an eight men v eight men competition. WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG?
I should add, three times, Mr Hosie pinged either Smith or opposite number Donaldson fro squint feeds. That's three time in one game - you don't see three penalties for squint feeds in an entire Six Nations tournament nowadays - yet we all know EVERY feed these days is squint.
Also, that 1979 game was played under the old laws of real rucking - when the ball had to be played out of the breakdown by feet. To my mind it made for much-quicker, cleaner ball than they get today, and, with the scrum-halves keen to get the ball out to the backs at once, it made for a more-fluid game.
Somewhere between 1979 and today, Rugby lost its way. It is time it re-discovered it.
For those who are interested, here is the link to the You Tube footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLACRKq9ZuM
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