The Sharks go top of the table by beating Western Province

Nice tries. I thought it would be closer than that. Good to see Bismark du Plessis back

Ahah, now I get the jokes my mates were making about the commentator. Stuttering along.

seriously, that commentator didnt complete one sentence. brilliant! At least Andy Cap was there to help him along lol

It was Chester Williams btw, for those wondering.

Is it just me or are referees taking an absurd amount of time between "...touch...pause...engage"? There's no reason to even say "pause" the way things are going. Watching this game, the referee (don't know his name) was taking forever....

It's not just Saffa refs either. I've seen it happening in the Top 14, the NZ Cup, and even this year's 3N. I'm not a forward either, but I can understand and appreciate the fact that 1 ton of blokes are on a hair-trigger about to smash into each other. They're used to a system of calls - start messing with that and it throws everyone off. Furthermore, the scrum isn't about the referee getting to feel superior and play Simon Says on a whim. Let the forwards do what forwards do...

Sorry...rant over.

@falafel .. I agree completely. The way referees are now setting scrums with longer pauses is becoming ridiculous. I always thought that saying "pause" was a waste of time anyway, the scrum's already waiting so why tell them to wait?
I also don't like the arbitrary penalties that get handed out for "early engagement", often at crucial moments and which are often the ref's fault.
Maybe the scrum engagement is getting over-regulated and they should experiment with letting it take care of itself again like you see in the old film footage. Just be tough on boring in and dragging down and the rest should sort itself out.

It's actually an IRB reffing directive to slow down the call.
It's actually not so bad, quick engagemnts lead to more collapses and greater chance of serius injuries.
It's a good thing, it gives more time for scrums to set.
It means the scrum isn't all about the initial hit put on, and the two front rows actually have to grapple and push.
It also reduces collapses, as the initial hit triggers many, and it reduces the speed and force of impact marginally, because it forces the scrums to actually set themselves first, and wait for the hit, instead of starting from a semi-standing position and going into the hit from a moving start. It means less chance of injury, more likelihood of the scrum staying up and brings back the longer contest at scrum time, the front row wrestling match and push from both sides.
The problem is two things, imo.
One is that front rowers just aren't used to it yet, and that will simply take time for adjustment.
The other is the same old chestnut, and that's the inability of refs to be consistent. Not only do different refs have different timings,but refs within a game will use different timings, from scrum to scrum.
Forwards need a set period of time between the calls, if it keeps changing they are going to engage early or late.
The amount of times I've seen refs change their timings during a game and then ping a team for engagin early is ridiculous, and it's really all the ref's fault.
The refs should count off in their heads between calls, and the timings shouldn't change much at all.
Another obvious improvment would be to simply pick a word other than 'engage' that is less than two sylables. Technically forwards are supposed to wait for the end of engage, but usually go when they here the fisrt sylable. Change it it a single sylable word, like 'start', 'go' or 'scrum'.
It would sovle alot of problems.

The sctrum will never be perfect though, half of what a front rower does in a scrum is cheat (knowingly and rightly, it's their job really), and the refs have a very hard job trying to police it.
It's not helped by the fact front rowers are usually toof at to become refs.

Nicely detailed reply Jono, I understand what the IRB's thinking must be on this and I agree with some of what you say but I really think the whole "pause" thing can be dropped. "Touch" .. make them wait a moment .. then "engage". If he wants to slow it down then just wait a beat longer in between. I really think it would sort out the early hitters much more clearly. Most of the time when a penalty is given I can't tell who has gone first, and I reckon the ref is guessing.
As far as the word "engage" goes .. I assume it was chosen because it works in English and French. But like you say no pack waits for the second syllable .. or even the first most of the time. A law that can't be enforced is not a good law.
I don't seriously expect this to go back to old style walk up and hit, all the same I don't recall collapsed scrums being anything like the problem they have been in recent years.

Jono, I see the point behind it but I feel there could be a bit more of a flow about it just to get the packs comfortable. Some refs have really messed with the timing during the game and pinged teams because of the age it takes to call and early entry. I think it's that thing that good really good refs are aware of and others aren't, consistancy.

Nice tries btw - although there was a forward pass in the first one. Stepping in the 2nd was awesome. Looking forward to the tri-nations game this weekend.

Re @Jono's points we've had two serious spinal injuries (leaving two under 17s paraplegic) in our local schools competition in the last year from scums so although this interrupts the flow I guess I am in favour of it