Some of these ex players sometimes do have something interesting to say, but it is hidden in the bile that spews out of their mouths as soon as any team from the SH is mentioned.  An inbuilt inferiority complex from too many years of beatings from the colonies, but then this is my SH bias coming through perhaps, not the time nor the place...

Anyway, the AUSTRALIAN plot to de power scrums (ELVs, in fact, from experience in the first six rounds of the Super 14, have made having a strong scrum even more important that it was), and ruin the game in general, lets have a closer look at that, thanks to Red Terror from the TSF forums...

"I understand that conspiracy theories run rampant, but does the "Australian plot" actually hold water?

My recollection of events is that IRB president Syd Millar recommended new amendments. Syd Millar was an Irish international and a British Lion. Sorry, not an Okker.

The IRB subsequently established the LPG (Laws Project Group). The IRB LPG chairman was Bill Nolan, the Scottish Council Member of the IRB. With me so far...? That's an Irishman and a Scot -- in agreement with one another -- and somehow the Irish and English, as your firsthand witness above attests, have their heels dug in that this is an Australian plot. O-kay, nobody said conspiracy theories had to make sense for them to gain momentum. Moving on...

The Vice-Chairman of the IRB LPG is Bill Beaumont. Bill's not an Okker, either. He's English, and another British Lion. Sorry whizzkids, but looking at this from the top down, it's hard to see the underpinnings of an Australian plot here.

The rest of the IRB LPG included Pierre Villepreux (France), Rod MacQueen (Australia), Ian McIntosh (South Africa), Richie Dixon (Scotland), and Paddy O’Brien (New Zealand).

On the balance of things, I'd say the initiative and development of these laws is international, and more from the side of NH unions than it is Sanzar, to say anything of appointing the blame solely on the ARU and the weakened Wallaby scrum".

So there you go, that blasted Convict conspiracy to ruin the game, it's a fact...