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By Jon Geddes
July 21, 2009 Former Wallaby prop Ben Darwin has described the rash of scrum penalties awarded against Al Baxter in last Saturday's Bledisloe Cup clash as bewildering and extraordinarily frustrating.
South African referee Craig Joubert constantly found fault with the Australia front-rower's technique - claiming his bind was not high enough - which was a significant factor in the Wallabies' inability to find their rhythm.
"For that to happen to a guy who went through the entire Super 14 season and a northern hemisphere tour without issue on his bind is quite odd," Darwin said from Tokyo where he is now assistant coach of the NTT Communications rugby team.
"Some of the decisions are quite bewildering. Why hasn't he been pinged before? It is extraordinarily frustrating."
Darwin said it never mattered where a player bound in the scrum, the most important aspect being the position of his elbow.
Darwin said referees sometimes guessed why something happened in a scrum.
"With scrummaging it has to be blatant, it has to be obvious and if you are not sure, don't penalise it," he said.
Darwin said that 80 to 90 per cent of scrum collapses were not caused by anyone doing anything wrong: "They just collapse. It's hard to get 16 people standing on their feet at the same time."
But he said referees often got frustrated and felt they had to take action.
"If they want to do something, get the two packs closer together," Darwin said.
Darwin was a mentor to Baxter at the start of his career and has taken great pride in seeing him develop at the international level.
"I would have thought Al's scrummaging in the last few years has put him in the top five props in the world. So I don't see why they should be looking at him all of a sudden and say he is using a different type of technique," Darwin said.
"To be asked by a referee mid-game to change his technique when it hasn't been an issue prior is pretty difficult."
Darwin said Baxter was being judged on his past reputation for not being strong.
He said that after going through a difficult period, Baxter had rebuilt his game from the scrum out, which then enabled him to become more confident around the field.
"If you are technically good at scrummaging then you don't get tired." Darwin said.
"And because Al has become so efficient at scrum time the rest of his game has developed enormously."
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-32464,00.html