{"id":771482,"date":"2026-09-15T13:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771482\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:58:14","slug":"ex-wallabies-hooker-slams-dangerous-world-rugby-law-after-all-blacks-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771482\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wallabies hooker slams ‘dangerous’ World Rugby law after All Blacks complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul has claimed that World Rugby\u2019s \u2018brake foot\u2019 law is \u201cdangerous\u201d after an All Blacks coach\u2019s comments stirred debate following their Springboks<\/a> defeat.<\/p>\n

New Zealand were penalised twice early on against South Africa at the weekend for scrum infringements, firstly with a free-kick and then with a long-arm penalty.<\/p>\n

On both occasions, referee Karl Dickson was unhappy with their brake foot, where the hooker has one foot positioned in the middle of the tunnel prior to engagement.<\/p>\n

That prompted All Blacks<\/a> forwards guru Neil Barnes to comment that \u201cno one gives a s*** about\u201d that law.<\/p>\n

Why World Rugby introduced it and what it\u2019s designed for<\/p>\n

It was first introduced four years ago with World Rugby<\/a> stating that it is designed to create more stability and reduce axial loading \u2013 the pressure on the head and neck.<\/p>\n

But Paul, who played in the front-row for the Wallabies between 1998 and 2006, disagrees and believes that it is not safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is dangerous as hell, you\u2019ve got 900 kilos behind you. We\u2019re going to go back to 5ft 5in hookers because anyone over 6ft 2in, you\u2019re going to struggle,\u201d he told the GBRANZ podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to bring that foot back so you\u2019re on the balls of your feet because then in that way you actually go in safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re asking you to do is come up over your front foot, they\u2019re asking you to plant your front foot. It\u2019s actually an incredibly hard thing to do to leave your foot there because you\u2019re not actually going in straight and safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhichever idiot in World Rugby decided to bring this rule in about brake foot, you are up for a massive, massive hurt here where it\u2019s dangerous, it\u2019s absolutely dangerous. You can\u2019t have the hookers having a flat foot when the other seven players are on the balls of their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say brake foot, I can\u2019t stop 900 f*****g kilos from coming behind me, I can\u2019t stop it by having my foot planted on the ground. Everybody\u2019s got to be on the balls of their feet and it\u2019s insane referees are penalising.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks coach slams referee for giving Springboks \u2018penalties for bugger all\u2019 in final Greatest Rivalry series clash<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul was joined on the show by All Blacks legend Kieran Read, who tended to agree with Barnes about whether there should be so much focus on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pointless thing too, it makes no difference. What you want is a scrum up and square, you want it up off the ground, so no matter how it gets there, keep it up, get it going,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to watch the reset. You want a contest, yes, the contest has got to be there, but don\u2019t go looking for something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s suggestion to help officials<\/p>\n

The scrum has always been considered one of the hardest things to referee but Paul believes there is a way of making it simpler for the officials, especially following the All Blacks\u2019 \u201cwalking around\u201d complaint<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything to do with your hips in a scrum. As soon as your hips start to split, that\u2019s when you start to splinter,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of when it\u2019s your ball\u2026 the loosehead is channel one and they\u2019ve got to keep their hips close to the hooker. As soon as it\u2019s opposition ball, they will kick their hips out because they\u2019ve got nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a referee to referee the walking around s***, everything else, just look at the hips. You\u2019re on the loosehead side watching the put-in, so you can see on the opposite side where that loosehead\u2019s hips are.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make a ruling, it\u2019s very simple. If the loosehead on the defensive side has broken away from the hips here (the hooker), it\u2019s their fault \u2013 it\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve made out this whole walking around and it\u2019s because of this, it\u2019s bull****, no one ever walks around on their own ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everyone scrummaged like they\u2019re scrummaging on their own ball, we could eliminate all these bull**** rules and get rid of this brake-foot as that\u2019s dangerous; you\u2019re going to break someone\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as simple as that and you fix scrummaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sir John Kirwan: All Blacks losses \u2018not a coaching issue\u2019 amid Scott Robertson question but admits Dave Rennie\u2019s side must beat Wallabies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul has claimed that World Rugby\u2019s \u2018brake foot\u2019 law is \u201cdangerous\u201d after an All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[428,348,3482,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-771482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}