Mike Cron interview: The scrum? Full of characters and scallywags

It was a brief reprieve from the day job. Since 2021, Cron has been employed by World Rugby as a set-piece consultant. During the Six Nations, he ran Zoom sessions with coaches from every team involved as well as Joël Jutge, the Head of Match Officials. It started with a PowerPoint, breaking down technique, existing issues and beneficial drills. That session kept running every Tuesday throughout the tournament.

Separately, Cron assisted the referees through their own association management software. Every scrum was reviewed. He would provide a summary and tick a box indicating if the decision was correct, incorrect or inconclusive.

“For the World Cup I went there a week before it started and was based alongside the refs in Paris,” Cron explains. “I sat in a room with the ref bosses, analysing all the decisions. I was the only coach in the room, so we could have a discussion from the coach’s view on a lineout, ruck or tackle. I actually stayed with the refs in the hotel, so we could go for a cup of coffee and a chat. I think we made real progress.” 

The debate around the scrum’s significance raged throughout the tournament, peaking after South Africa eked out a narrow victory over England thanks to a late scrum penalty. On these shores, Virgin Media pundit Matt Williams announced it was time for World Rugby to make a decision. “Do we want the scrum to be the focal point of our game?” Nigel Owens came to the set-piece’s defence, heralding it as an integral part of the sport. “Rugby Union is a game for all shapes and sizes and should remain so.” 

At this point it should be stressed that Cron was oblivious to all of this noise. There is also a need to avoid kneejerk reactions to high-profile contests. That semi-final took place in unrelenting rain. There were naturally more handling errors and therefore more scrums. If New Zealand were on the other side of a one-point decider, would the discussion be as enraged? Data published by analyst Brett Igoe revealed the team with the most successful scrum heading into the World Cup semi-finals was in fact Chile, who finished with no wins and -188 points difference in Pool D.

Let’s start with the basics, what is the scrum actually for?

“For me, it is a magnificent launching pad if you do it correctly. You need the cattle and the right attitude. At the World Cup, the biggest factor was mismatches, which you only really get at a World Cup.

“I was working in the background encouraging Tier 1 sides to adopt a certain attitude. This idea of holding the ball at the back and driving a minnow back ten metres is like beating up your little brother repeatedly.

“I understand you do it once when you get home from school but leave it at that. One for safety, two it is a poor spectacle. Don’t be a backyard bully. Apart from one game early in the competition, I thought all coaches were outstanding. They adjusted and adapted, held their power back if needed and went out to play.” 

For Cron coaching is a vocation. He claims to no longer be full-time and then proceeds to outline a head-spinning schedule. It took 37 hours to get home from France to New Zealand. A day later he will jet off to Japan to assist Robbie Deans and the Panasonic Wild Knights.

It is his calling. An obvious obsession. Everything else feeds back to the roots. When he met shot putt world champion Tom Walsh, talk immediately turned to his training for balance and unilateral strength. Cron heard all about slack line exercise and brought it back to the All Blacks.

And his coaching is driven by a passion for the sport itself. It is not just about making players better. It is about making the game better.

“At the elite level you are finetuning, one or two percent. Think of the golf coach, educating and coaching one of the best players in the world. Every day he goes out you are looking to make sure he doesn’t develop a slice or hook. You fix that technique before it becomes a problem or a habit. Your job at the top level is to educate and continually improve them. Sit there and analyse the biomechanics at training. You identify if something is off and fix it. You never get to a stage where you sit back and say job done.” 

Change is coming. He has been part of it. Cron was involved in the move towards a pre-bind. He would like to see a ten-second limit imposed on the time between a referee calling his mark and the scrum forming. Not to rush the set-piece, but to cut down on wasted time with resets or opportunistic breathers. He anticipates a move eventually that will see front rows fully engaged when the referee calls ‘bind’.

“There was a big drive where teams wanted to win the scrum on the blindside, all leaning like Superman. That is the worst thing to happen. That and locks coming off their knees. I’ve no problem if you do it but you have to have your balance right. You can’t come off your knees and rock forward. It rocks the front row forward. Scrums aren’t balanced and it eats up clock. You can do whatever you want as a coach, but make sure they are balanced.

“What happens on the setup is the locks bind on each other and have both knees on the ground. If they rock forward off their knees, that is when you get all the shit in the front row.” 

As for officiating controversies, he hopes they are taken in context.

“A scrum will only stay up for two seconds before it creaks and moves. Then it depends on what a ref is looking at and when he is looking at it. There is so much going on, so many balls being juggled, which one is he looking at? A ref makes a decision and then some prick with an overhead camera will show something still-framed. He is not on a stepladder looking down.

“I reckon they got 90% right at the World Cup. Coaches understand 50/50 calls. We just don’t want the blunders. You have to be fair to the ref. I would put it back on myself as a coach. Let’s be the best in the world at what we do. Educate your players to stay strong with movement, make sure they understand the way the scrum is going to move. The axis and centre point of a scrum is on the opposition hooker’s right shoulder.

“Naturally, it will move from loosehead up. If it sits there long enough it will start to creak that way naturally. Good attack coaches want that ball in, quick ball out to get past their loose forwards and go.

“Attack coaches should say that to a scrum coach. ‘We have eight buggers stuck here, they are five metres back, this is the great place to launch from phase one.’ 

“The biggest thing, the scrum should be seen as a positive thing not a negative. A chance to attack. It is where the characters of the team usually are, even if they are scallywags. It can be something great.”