Veteran fronts up for scrums

Taranaki rugby hardman Bryce McEldowney will be taking a leading role in the way the Hurricanes front row performs this year.

McEldowney has been co-opted by coach Graham Mourie to tutor the rugby team's forward pack - particularly rookie Tony Penn and Tony Coughlan, who has converted from loosehead to tighthead prop.

McEldowney, who played "80 or so" games for Taranaki in the 1970s alongside Mourie, more recently played a leading hand in moulding the Taranaki NPC forward pack into one of the best units in provincial rugby. For this reason Mourie has called upon his former team-mate to work his magic with the Hurricanes.

His input will be crucial. The Hurricanes have one of the most potent backlines in world rugby. But question marks loom over the team's forwards and whether they can win enough ball to feed point-scoring machines Cullen, Lomu and Umaga.

Last year there was problems in the Hurricanes' lineout. But this season the team's props, with the exception of Gordon Slater, have been touted as a possible weakness.

As Mourie pointed out when the Hurricanes squad was named last month, the problem is not unique to Wellington. The Blues have held off in naming a specialist tighthead prop mainly because they have not been able to sign one of sufficient quality. But their search came a step closer yesterday when Tongan Tevita Taumoepeau was said to have the inside running.

Coughlan, a Blues discard, is now the Hurricanes' back-up tighthead. The personable front-rower has played all his rugby, except for a couple of NPC matches, as a loosehead. If Gordon Slater is injured he will have the job of propping up the Hurricanes' scrum, literally - a responsibility he would relish.

Coughlan has worked up a storm in the gym over the summer and added 7kg to his frame. He now weighs 119kg. He has the bulk, but propping is all about technique. McEldowney's job is to teach him how to adapt to the other side of the scrum.

Some may say Coughlan should be put on a diet of raw meat and Rambo movies to prepare for the battle ahead. But so far, Coughlan and fellow reserve prop Tony Penn have seen nothing of the sort.

McEldowney said there was good reason for that.

"It's not my style. My role is really just as another set of eyes and to provide the odd tip here and there."

He would concentrate on basic technical matters.

If McEldowney sounds small on the chit-chat about his coaching role - and won't say whether it is a paid position - he brims with talk when the subject moves to the craft of scrummaging.

To the uninitiated it's a mystery, and to others it's just a wrestling match. But to props it's a science to be taken seriously and studied for years.

The main difference between a tight and loosehead, McEldowney explains, is that a tighthead leads his pack into the scrum. He puts on the initial "hit" when the packs engage.

A tighthead's head is buried between the opposition's hooker and loosehead prop. His shoulders bear the brunt of two people instead of just one.

A tighthead's body position is significantly different from a loosehead's - mainly in the angle of his body.

He has to keep his back parallel to the ground and body at a right angle to the opposition's tryline so as to keep the scrum straight.

A loosehead can afford to bore, push up or down in an effort to disrupt the opposition and twist the scrum when it has the loosehead feed.

To counter this, Coughlan will have to first have his feet in the right position to anchor the scrum. He can then try to counter the force in front of him by applying force, ideally in the opposite direction.

Does that sound easy?

Well, props are usually the strongmen of rugby teams and can be extremely flexible. They can contort their bodies in all manner of directions while applying the force of a vice grip. They are not averse to the odd underhand tactic either, such as lifting their opposite's leg off the ground. Digging their chin into their opposite's face is another favourite.

Then there is the timing. The tighthead is the first to move when a scrum forms. With a combined total of 800kg bound tightly behind you, the cohesion between the eight must be exact. Forwards spend hours honing this skill alone. If the tighthead fails on any one of these facets the scrum becomes a mess and either collapses or wheels left or right, resulting in scrappy ball.

So McEldowney's task will be a difficult one, but his first impression of Coughlan was that he would be up to the task.

"I don't think he will have too many problems.

"If he can get the basics and his head in the right position, the rest will come naturally."

Coughlan said it was "humbling" to see the likes of Slater taking McEldowney's advice on front-row technique.

"I guess a prop never stops learning, however old they are."

- NZPA