'It got pretty bad there for a while' - Kelleher welcomes new scrum law trial for Six Nations

Ronan Kelleher says the new scrum law being trialled during this year's Six Nations is a welcome development.

After consultation with the world's leading hookers, World Rugby has confirmed it will be clamping down on what's known as 'axial loading' in the scrum, with the new law being tested in the men's women's and U20 Six Nations.

'Axial loading' occurs during the scrum engagement process when referees call 'Bind', which in recent years has seen the opposing hookers leaning their head on each other for balance, with an estimated 100kg of force running through their spine and neck.

Under the new trial law, both hookers will have to put their weight on a 'brake foot' until the referee calls 'Set', which will significantly reduce the pressure on their necks.

"Often, in recent years, there would be a lot of weight on binds and that leads to pre-engagements and scrums going down", Ireland hooker Kelleher said.

"So it's about preventative measures to protect the hookers’ and tightheads’ necks really.

"Now that weight will not be on your head, but on your front foot, so there should still be a gap to fire into as a front row.

"To be honest, some games it would be worse than others but it got pretty bad there for a while.

"You just had to deal with it I suppose and a lot of it would come down to your recovery during the week and how you'd recover your body to make sure you were ready to go again at the weekend.

"I suppose at the time it was just part of the job but now I’m glad they’re putting in measures to try and fix it now."

The 24-year-old looks set to start alongside Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong in the front row for Saturday's tournament opener against Wales, with Andy Farrell set to name his starting team this afternoon.

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