There was a snapshot from the second to fourth minutes of the opening match of the Six Nations between France and Ireland when you knew from two scrums that World Rugby had utterly lost the plot as rugby union’s lawmaker.

The implications are potentially disastrous, and stem from systematically bad laws it has imposed on the scrum – an area its suits see as a problem child rather than the cornerstone of our game.
Joel Jutge, World Rugby’s head of match officials, should warn the match referee, England’s Karl Dickson, for failing to apply the scrum laws, and to state publicly that if he – or...