"Teams putting the ball in should be allowed to deliver the ball from the time the front rows engage. That should be their choice, on their timing, not the referees' commands.
"I think referees have got too much power and too much control, not just within the game but around the lawmaking and they are having too much control over interpretation," Thorburn said.
Scrummaging changed in New Zealand in 1971 when the Lions toured. They were clever and on opposition ball had all eight men pushing. They did not strike and used their flankers to push straight on the side of the scrum. They upset and almost destroyed the All Black scrum.
"Before that you engaged when you were ready. The more you have input into what the guys are doing, the more opportunity there is for a balls-up," said Thorburn.
"They are now talking about the referee having no verbal or physical input into engaging the scrum so when the players are ready they just go together.
"There will always be smart-arses who try to stuff it up but most front rowers respect each other. It is just guesswork at the moment and putting the ball in crooked to the scrums or skewed is a variation on every referee's judgment."
If you delivered the ball in straight at scrums, the side with the supposed advantage could not hook it with seven men pushing against eight.
The scrum was a great way of creating space on the field and that setpiece needed more refinement. It grouped 16 players and two halfbacks in one area which left much more space somewhere else.
Thorburn also felt referees too often ignored players who were offside in front of the kick which shut down counter-attacking opportunities. The offside line went all the way across the field and players needed to start or return behind that.
Similarly defensive lines were creeping up again and all the match officials needed to be more vigilant in punishing those illegalities.
"The other one making rugby a laughing stock is the forward pass," said Thorburn.
"Read the law book and it says if the ball travels from one player forward of the parallel line to the dead-ball line, it is a forward pass, nothing about hands pointing back, forward, up or down.
"It is a parallel line from the player passing to the player receiving. If it drifts forward it is a forward pass and all this nonsense about justifying forward passes with stick figures as the ball drifts forward with momentum is a joke."
