Cronk tells V’landys: ‘Fix the scrum, don’t flick it’

NRL great Cooper Cronk has a message for Peter V’landys: Don’t scrap the scrum, fix it so that rugby league’s entertainers get a chance to shine.

Forty-one per cent of 3300 fans in a News Corp poll have called for the much-derided play to be scrapped.

Another 39 per cent want teams to be penalised for breaking the rules, while 20 per cent want referees to feed scrums.

Speaking in Cooper’s View with Hannah Hollis for Fox League, Cronk (pictured) said getting rid of the scrum would take away the chance for some of the game’s most exciting and daring players to have an attacking impact on the field.

“For me, the scrum needs to stay because it gives our best attacking players, Kalyn Ponga, Clint Gutherson, Michael Jennings, Luke Keary and Cameron Munster … all these guys get a chance to attack four, five, six defenders, where normally it’s 12 in defensive line. Let’s fix it up, let’s make them pack properly and let’s take the differential penalty out,” Cronk said.

The statistics also back up Cronk’s take on the scrum. This season 14 tries have been scored from scrums, compared to only nine last year. Linebreaks from scrums are also up from nine in 2019 to 16 in 2020.

ARL Commission chairman V’landys said the state of the scrum was a “joke” and revealed the possibility of having a referee feed it. The debate came after a diabolic attempt from Titans and Warriors players to bind in a scrum.