Engagement

At this point, you’re happy with your checklist. It’s now time to start this scrum. This is where you will start to no longer have an influence on what happens. Keep control for as long as possible.

Cadence

The scrum cadence, explicit in Law 19.10 through 12, is

Crouch, bind, set

Three instructions, three actions. Do not move on to bind until everyone is crouched. If things are being held up, restart and correct through management. If you continue to have problems, escalate to a FK first. If needed, escalate beyond.

Do not rush your cadence! Take a breath between each instruction. Your cadence can be a management technique if there are broader issues putting you under pressure.

Tip

If you need to escalate, try not to use the same sanction twice.

For instance, if you have FK blue for early engage earlier in the match and they go early again, escalate to a PK. Don’t just stay on FK.

Space

Building off of axial loading, work to have the opposing front rows maintain space between them until set. Do not let them take space away from their opponent. This will allow them to cheat on the race to “set”, which takes the place of a big, dominate hit (which was a desired outcome from the cadence switch to ‘set’ versus ‘engage’).

Maintain the “ear to ear” space. Work to get a fair contest.

Here are some examples of teams taking away one another’s space. You’ll notice that the two front rows are almost fully engaged before “set” and the referee is immediately under pressure trying to get the teams to “hold” and be “steady”. Put the onus and pressure back onto the players where it belongs before it gets to this point.