{"id":778546,"date":"2026-09-22T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778546\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:04:11","slug":"steven-kitshoff-warns-of-dangers-of-scrum-law-which-needs-to-go-out-of-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778546\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Kitshoff warns of dangers of scrum law which ‘needs to go out of rugby’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks<\/a> legend Steven Kitshoff is the latest ex-international to voice his dissatisfaction with World Rugby\u2019s \u2018brake foot\u2019 law and has called for it to be removed from the game.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of debate around the scrums during the recent Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series between South Africa and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

During the early stages of the fourth Test in Baltimore, the All Blacks were penalised twice 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

After that match, All Blacks senior assistant coach Neil Barnes said \u201cno one gives a s*** about\u201d that law.<\/p>\n

World Rugby initially introduced the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law four years ago and stated at the time that it is designed to create more stability and reduce axial loading \u2013 the pressure on the head and neck.<\/p>\n

Former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul recently said the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law is not safe<\/a> and described it as \u201cdangerous as hell\u201d and ex-Springboks<\/a> loosehead prop Kitshoff<\/a>, who retired last year due to a serious neck injury, has similar views on the matter.<\/p>\n

During a combined episode of the Rugby Unity and For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa<\/a> podcasts recently, former All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen raised the topic of the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law while discussing the issue of teams finishing matches with disproportionate numbers of players on the field due to yellow cards for head contact incidents.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s just a nightmare\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same problem with this brake foot and the scrums,\u201d he said. \u201cOh man, it\u2019s just a nightmare. I mean, someone\u2019s going to get seriously injured shortly, and who\u2019s going to take responsibility for that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kitshoff echoed Hansen\u2019s sentiments and urged for the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law to be eradicated from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think it was brought into the game to try and keep the game safer, but these guys I speaking often to Malcolm (Marx) and the hookers at the Springboks, they\u2019re putting themselves in such an uncomfortable position by keeping the brake foot forward, and they just can\u2019t get into that snap, they can\u2019t get into a good scrumming position,\u201d he revealed<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the brake foot was brought in to make the game safer, to control the distance of the scrum, to not over lean, put too much pressure on the neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now, say the Springboks got a big engagement and they get across the line quite aggressively, other teams need to find a way to almost manage that first initial impact and that first initial drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think the brake foot needs to change again. I think it needs to go back to where it was. Normally, a hooker can have both feet back because actually the props and the hookers, they keep their space very well.0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe locks do a great job on keeping the guys back. So there is a clear bind and a bind process to keep the weight across, but then having that brake foot in such a weird spot is difficult and almost the refs forget about it for a while and then all of a sudden, you just start seeing them get pinged again.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie is copying \u2018madman\u2019 Springboks coach\u2019s philosophies as Jeff Wilson predicts better All Blacks after coach fixed \u2018first\u2019 issue<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018The brake foot needs to go\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for me, the brake foot needs to go out of rugby, especially in the senior and the professional era or phase of rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Wallabies head coach Ewen McKenzie agrees and said due to the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law, there are several scrums where a \u201ccontest\u201d between opposing forward packs does not take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of the brake foot because all it\u2019s doing is giving the referee a default option to go for the free kick penalty and the scrum doesn\u2019t even happen,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I get it if you have a scrum penalty and there\u2019s actually a scrum going on, but we don\u2019t even get into the scrum and they\u2019re calling the break foot and so it goes to a free kick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t get the contest, which is part of the game. So I think you can talk about the break foot or we can go back and make the hookers strike for the ball. If they have to strike for the ball, they\u2019ll have an entirely different position and they\u2019ll be hanging off their props, right, because they\u2019ve got to get themselves in a position to strike for the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that means we\u2019ve got to put the ball back in the middle of the tunnel and go back to the way it was and all those things weren\u2019t relevant back in the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I understand we\u2019re trying to avoid injuries and things like that, but I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ve solved that. We\u2019ve certainly made it more of a pushing contest and the good big guy is going to beat the good little guy anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think it\u2019s relevant. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something the referees need to be able to manage because it\u2019s just an easy out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen then identified the part of the \u2018brake foot\u2019 law which is the root cause of the problems which players experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019ve had a brake foot though for probably four or five years. Now, all of a sudden, it\u2019s become you\u2019ve got to keep your heel on the ground. That\u2019s the bit that\u2019s causing the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about getting rid of it. It\u2019s been there for yonks. Keeping your heel on the ground, you\u2019ve got to come up and over yourself and people can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarx has got a sore neck. I know Cody Taylor\u2019s got a sore neck. They\u2019re two of the best hookers in the world and we\u2019re risking them injury. It\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no one wants that. Every team, I know the South Africans have, I know the All Blacks have, I know other teams up in Northern Hemisphere have spoken to the powers to be about changing it, but no one wants to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-Springboks stars\u2019 blunt verdict on All Blacks\u2019 future after Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series defeat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Steven Kitshoff is the latest ex-international to voice his dissatisfaction with World Rugby\u2019s \u2018brake foot\u2019 law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,50,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-778546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778546","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=778546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}