I HAVE enjoyed seeing Wolves score tries straight from scrums this season – let’s have more!

For a spell I was thinking it had become a forgotten art.

We’ve already had two this year from Tony Smith’s men, with Joel Monaghan’s second effort against Catalan backing up the one by Rhys Evans against Wigan in Ben Westwood’s Testimonial game.

When the forwards – admittedly these days it’s sometimes one or two backs as replacements – are packing down, it’s an opportunity for the threequarters to show electric pace and silky handling.

It is probably the only time in a game when players are assured of a bit more space to try out side-steps and shimmies, when being marked one-on-one.

The crowds appreciate training ground moves with run-arounds or miss-out passes bearing fruit.

Some of my favourite Warrington tries have been scored in such circumstances.

You would have to go a long way to see a more exciting score than the one from Paul Sculthorpe’s inside drop-off pass for flying New Zealander Richard Henare to hare the full length of the pitch against St Helens in 1996.

And if memory serves me right, there were several breathtaking scores when Kevin Penny chased down long-distance kicks from Lee Briers after he’d collected the ball as first receiver from a scrum.

And there were previous eras when scrum halfs like Parry Gordon, Ken Kelly and Kevin Ellis would scorch away for solo tries straight from the base of the loose forward’s feet.

Let’s face it, scrums have to serve some purpose and it is as good a reason as any to give the backs a chance to go for glory.

After all, it’s a long time since scrums were contested in rugby league. Fifty scrums or more per game were not uncommon at one time, when it was the teams with the best hookers of the ball from the scrum feeds who were able to dominate possession.

In today’s game, if we don’t have the potential for some variation from a scrum then all we are left with is a stoppage to give players a breather.

I don’t begrudge them that because these super-fit athletes never stop running, tackling and thinking, but the entertainment factor is important too.

It is awe inspiring to see the big fellas knocking 10 shillings out of one another in the heat of battle down the middle and it can be breathtaking to see defenders being outmanoeuvred, side-stepped or skinned for pace by explosive talent.