Eddie Jones has taken issue with certain unions and governing bodies over their attempts to depower the scrum.
The move was kick-started by World Rugby, who prevented a scrum being taken from a free-kick, before Super Rugby Pacific introduced new measures for the 2026 season.
That involves accidental offside and delaying the ball being played at a ruck both being a free-kick sanction rather than a scrum.
Backing France and Springboks
There are reports that two clear factions emerged at the Shape of the Game conference with France and South Africa on one side, who seek to defend rugby’s traditional values, and Australia and New Zealand on the other.
But it appears as though Jones is backing Les Bleus and the Springboks with this matter.
“I don’t think it’s a north-south thing. That’s like the old communist, capitalist type breakdown. Countries have always got self-interest – you go to these meetings, it’s self-interest,” he said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“There are very few people who can see outside of it, I don’t know if there’s anyone that can because we’ve all got a bit of self-interest.
“The scrum is such an important part of rugby and it’s one of the differentiations of the game. We shouldn’t go anywhere to depower, I think we need to try to get it to be set quicker and I think it’s possible.
“I think it will take the referee to be consistent to do that but that’s one quick change we could make straight away.”
Asked for his thoughts on the law changes for the 2026 Super Rugby season, Jones said: “I don’t like it, I think the scrum’s there for a restart and we should keep it as a restart to the game. The more you go to free-kicks, the more chance we’ve got for a lot of kicking.”
World Rugby confirm ‘universal agreement’ over law changes following Shape of the Game summit
The Japan head coach warned of the ramifications it could have should the sport continue along its path of depowering the scrum.
Jones also argued that it fundamentally goes against what rugby union is about.
‘Game for all shapes and sizes’
“The charter of the game is to be a game for all shapes and sizes. Whether that’s still important is for other people to decide,” he said.
“If you depower the scrum then just have a look at the consequence of what happened in rugby league. It will change the players you pick – why would you pick props?
“Do we want a game where everyone’s the same size and shape? It does change the charter of the game. Is that too important? If not, let’s get rid of it, so we don’t care about that and we’re happy to go with a continuity game with no contest.”
Jones is a big fan of rugby league but he worries that the sport is trying to become too much like the 13-a-side code and ruin what makes union unique and brilliant.
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“If you start to do more to the scrum, the chance is that you’re moving down that continuity path too much. The intrinsic beauty about our game is that balance between contest and continuity,” he added.
“It’s always a battle to get it right and it’s never perfect. We know the game’s never perfect but we don’t want a perfect game.
“If you want to watch a perfect game, watch rugby league, watch American football – they’re structured, they’re nice and neat – but that’s not the game we have.
“Unless that’s what everyone decides we want to have, let’s go down that track, and then it will be like a poorer version of rugby league – it won’t compete in Australia.”