By popular consent the two leading scrummaging gurus in world rugby are Mike Cron, current New Zealand scrum coach, in the Southern Hemisphere, and Phil Keith-Roach, former England scrum coach and Rhino founder and consultant, in the Northern Hemisphere. Remarkably, the two men had never met, and as Rhino is always committed to friendly interchange and co-operation in respect of promoting safe and effective fully contested scrummaging as an integral feature of the rugby union game, we took the opportunity of hosting a dinner for the two leading proponents of these arts during the All Blacks stay in London prior to their game with England. What followed was a tour d’horizon of historical and recent developments in respect of scrummaging laws and techniques, which if recorded would have been a best selling definitive statement – in the event, it was wasted on Rhino CEO and former fly half Reg Clark. As usual with Phil, the evening featured live scrummaging action, to the bemusment of other diners in the newly opened (and highly recommended) Côte restaurant in Kensington. Not quite on a par with the famous meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in 1941, but in terms of the world of scrummaging, not far off!
