Quote: silver2 "I would love to know what went on in those contested scrums and why certain hookers were able to dominate possession. Keith Bridges was indeed one of the best and he appeared to have all the skills at a fairly young age - but what were those skills? Certainly hookers were hard men but there must have been more to it than that. Any ideas?'"
The most successful hookers managed to break most of the rules most of the time and get away with it. We used to see Ashcroft or Bridges, or Stevo for that matter, striking before the ball went in ( offence) lying on the floor ( offence) getting one arm loose from binding ( offence ). The refs could not blow up for everything ( including half back violations notably 'feeding' which used to be a cry from the terraces heard almost as often as 'offside' these days ) or the game would never have restarted. Best done without, I reckon, unless you think rugby should be partly about winning the ball, rather than what you do with it when you've got it.
