All Blacks legend McCaw wants a scrum clock introduced

All Black Legend Richie McCaw has opined that rugby should give serious thought to introducing a ‘stop-clock’ for the scrums.

McCaw feels that eliminating timewasting at the scrum will lead to a more attractive game and more action on the field.

In 2018 the average amount of time the ball was in play in rugby matches across the globe was 37 minutes and 35 seconds, representing an increase from 34 minutes and 57 seconds four years earlier. The global trend is to ensure the ball is in play more often to provide more entertainment and attract new fans to the game. Despite the improvements, the effective playing time in a rugby match is still less than half the time alloted to play the game. 

Scrums are central to the issue of time as anybody who watches rugby knows a scrum will almost inevitably eat up at least a minute and often much greater lengths of time if the contest is problematic. The average number of scrums per match remained the same between 2014 and 2018, but the rate of clearance grew and the rate of collapse shrunk. Changes to scrum-time laws have allowed rugby to keep the ball in play more often but the gains made by those changes are now dropping off.

Stop-clock on the scrum

To combat this McCaw suggests a time limit be placed on scrums with a stop-clock used to ensure the ball is back in play as soon as possible.

“One of the things I get a bit frustrated by is the way a scrum can eat up a lot of time in the game,” McCaw told a World Rugby Q & A session.

“If I was going to change something it would be to stop the clock when awarding a scrum and it starts again when the ball comes in. You’d get quite a bit more rugby.”

McCaw doesn’t want to coach

McCaw is considered among the greatest players ever to have pulled on an All Blacks jersey but is not considering getting into the coaching game, at least not at the highest level. The great said he may consider getting involved in youth coaching but would find the top-level of the game too frustrating.

“I think I’d just get too frustrated. As a player I could get out there and do something about it. But when you are a coach I think you have to have a different way of looking at it. But I’d like to coach young kids one day,” he said.