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14th April 2015
06:02pm BST
By the time Barnes actually instructed the teams to crouch, the clock had reached 10:02, an obscene amount of time to keep a scrum bound together in that position.
Try it for yourself. Go into a squat position, and then bend forward, so that your torso is parallel to the ground. Hold it there for 22 seconds, and I can guarantee you that your legs will start to get wobbly. And it's even worse for the second rows, who are trying to wedge themselves between the thighs of 18 stone props.
Naturally, when the scrum eventually set, it collapsed almost instantly, which is inevitable when you've been in a squatting position for 32 seconds.
Every referee will miss foul play at the scrum for the sheer reason that you can only see one side at a time, but when there are clear infringements on both the blind and openside, then you really have no excuse.
In this second half scrum in the French game, both Mike Ross and Jack McGrath were guilty of scrum infringements, neither of which were spotted by Barnes.
On the tight-head side Ross shortened his bind and locked onto the arm of Eddy Ben Arous, with his locked out legs showing the extent of his troubles below.
That really should have been spotted by touchjudge Nigel Owens, but Barnes missed an even more blatant foul on the other side of the scrum, despite being only a couple of feet from it.
As we can see below, Jack McGrath has angled his body in on Rabah Slimani, popping out his hips and driving inwards. Still, Barnes saw nothing wrong.
One major area where Barnes has displayed his clear lack of understanding is when a scrum wheels. In each of the French and Welsh games he made crucial, and incorrect calls when a scrum was wheeled, and although he was at least consistent with them, he wrongly penalised sides for driving crooked when they were actually driving straight.
While intentionally wheeling a scrum is illegal, a scrum can rotate naturally. If the defending props both drive straight, but at differnt forces, the the scrum will naturally begin to move forward and wheel, and once it has moved forward through the axis by 90 degrees, the scrum is reset, with the team not in possession of the ball awarded the put in.
This is exactly what happens in this scrum, but Barnes gets his decision all wrong.
Here is the scrum as it starts, with the yellow line running through the middle acting as the axis to judge the movement on.
As we can see as it moves on, replacement loose-head Vincent Debaty gets a nudge on Marty Moore, and drives the scrum forward on his side, while Uini Atonio holds his position at tight-head, acting as an anchor.
As we can see, the French props are scrummaging square and straight to their opponents, meaning their bodies are parallel to the ground, and they are driving straight into their opponents, and not angling across their bodies.
Eventually, the scrum turns 90 degrees, and as we can see below, Debaty has moved considerably forward from his original position, rather than merely rotating on the spot, which would have been illegal. Barnes, however, penalises France.
In the closing stages of Ireland's defeat in Wales, we had a near identical situation, which again Barnes incorrectly called (at least he's consistent, eh?).
Again, we can see the yellow axis of the scrum as it sets, to be used as a reference point.
Just as Debaty did in the scrum above, Healy got the better of his opponent Aaron Jarvis, and the scrum begins to move forward on his side, with Marty Moore anchoring.
With Ireland now moving forward quickly, Jarvis tries to rotate his body, so that the scrum is wheeling, rather than just going backwards, and it comes to the stage where the scrum rotates even further beyond the required 90 degrees for a reset. However, just like against France, Barnes wrongly deems it to be illegally wheeled, and awards a penalty to Wales.
On closer examination of the scrum, there were several Welsh players clearly offending, which should have resulted in far more than just a turned over scrum.
In the still photo below, we can see that Aaron Jarvis has collapsed his side, and we can also see that both Toby Faletau and Sam Warburton have completely disengaged, cynically stacking their defence with potential tackers despite the ball still being in the scrum.
With Leinster's scrum so dominant against Bath two weeks ago and Alexandre Menini such a clear weak-link in Toulon's victory against Wasps, the scrum should be an area Leinster target to put themselves on the front foot.
Whether they'll be given the chance, not even Wayne Barnes could tell you that.
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