The new scrum laws were implemented on Saturday in the Bledisloe Cup which caused a little bit of confusion and jitteriness not only among the players, but as well as the officials.

The efforts to implement the law as smoothly as possible were not wanting. However, like any other new things that are encountered, time to adjust to such should be taken into consideration. Furthermore, change, most often than not, tend to displease people.

The half-backs and the referees had their hands full in this particular match.

''It was tough,'' Scrum-half Will Genia told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

''[Joubert] said before the game started 'look we want it dead straight, we're under pressure to get selected for games, so we have to make sure we enforce it', so we went into it expecting to get penalised once or twice and I guess that eventuated.''

Still, it is worth noting that five out of the six initial scrums were needed to be re-packed.

In implementing a new rule, or any set of rules for that matter, consistency is primordial. There were some discrepancies as regards the calls, like Genia's feed which was ruled as not straight, was allowed when Aaron Smith tried the same move.

Another was spotted, in South Africa, hours after the game wherein a feed that went through the scrum and out to the other end was called for a re-pack. This same situation led to a different ruling in the game between the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

''We've just created another wee issue, haven't we?'' Said New Zealand Coach Steve Hansel to the SMH.

''Obviously at the moment the referees are being very vigilant on it, so you had two sets of halfbacks out there who, every time there was a scrum, were very reluctant to put the ball in because they didn't want to be yellow-carded.''

Although bothered by its initial impact, the Australian Mentor Ewen Mckenzie expressed optimism in the new rule.

'In time we'll sort it all out but for a first-up effort it was hard work,'' McKenzie informed SMH.

"We want the scrum to be a contest but you still have to be able to play from it. We got a little bit of ball out of there but neither team really profited out of [it]. There was turnovers and penalties. It really cuts out a lot of the back-line play, which is what you want to watch in the end.''