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David Flatman wants to make viewers fall in love with scrummaging - Getty Images/Michael Steele
In the 13th minute of the West Country derby on Sunday, a scrum inside the Gloucester 22 presented David Flatman a chance to turn David Attenborough. What followed was around 50 seconds of broadcasting gold, as TNT Sports viewers were treated to an engaging and insightful account of the set-piece duel between Beno Obano and Afo Fasogbon.
Adopting a slightly hushed tone in front of the West Stand at The Rec, Flatman explained how Obano, the Bath loosehead prop, was aiming to get underneath Fasogbon and “fold him back over himself”. Fasogbon, the Gloucester tighthead, was hoping to “get nice and long” with his body position and “crumple Obano backwards”.
Affable and witty, Flatman is perhaps still underrated as a technical analyst of the sport. Here, in less than a minute, he had set up a critical subplot of the game with a genuinely educational segment. The former England prop credits Craig Doyle for this particular idea, but stresses that TNT Sports harbour a creative and open-minded working environment. “There are constant conversations about trying things,” Flatman adds. “It isn’t just ‘pundit there, pundit there, go’. I really like that.”
As well as Doyle, a figurehead of the production team as well as the lead presenter, Gari Jenkins, Ollie Springgay, Daniel Hudson and Griff Davies are all name-checked as supportive and steady colleagues. “Whatever you suggest, they just roll with it and their heart-rate doesn’t seem to change,” Flatman says. “It is incredibly encouraging to broadcast with people like that.”
Though he is somewhat self-deprecating about his own role – “because scrummaging is my primary area of experience, it’s me stepping up by default” – Flatman should not be. His passionate delivery carries sharp detail that aids a wider appreciation of the set-piece battle. Besides, it always grates when a paid pundit confesses that they have no idea about why a scrum has wheeled the way it has or how a referee might have interpreted a specific set piece.
“If you tell the viewers that scrums are boring and too complicated, they will eventually believe you,” Flatman says. “I love scrums, and they can be boring. Equally, backlines being shut down by defences and committing handling areas can be boring. Kicking can be wonderful, inspiring and threatening… but also dull.
“I’m not allowed to say ‘nobody knows what’s going on there’ when a break happens in midfield. I won’t be able to explain it quite as readily as Brian O’Driscoll or Austin Healey, but I will try to work it out. I can’t say ‘God knows, onto the next clip’.
“The scrum isn’t going to disappear, no matter what people think, and I just think it’s worth reminding people that there is a lot going on there. If something is entertaining and informative, you’d hope that someone with no interest in scrums might go: ‘Ah, right. That’s it, is it?’”
There is a question of context here, as well. Scrummaging lapses against the Springboks have hastened England’s defeats at the last two World Cups in 2019 and then 2023. For a while, it appeared as though the pathway was struggling to develop elite props.
Tom Harrison has overseen a strong Six Nations in this area and the Rugby Football Union deserves credit for implementing tight-five camps for the most promising youngsters, yet television can be a vehicle towards strengthening the scrummaging culture of the entire country. And a swathe of young front-rowers such as Fasogbon, Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Billy Sela can be a focal point for this drive.
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Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasogbon has caught the eye this season with his work at the scrum - Getty Images/Bob Bradford
“It’s not a national crisis,” Flatman finishes. “We spent a lot of time wondering what areas of the game we need to celebrate most and the one facet of rugby union that makes it distinct is the contestable scrummage. That doesn’t mean it’s the best bit. It’s the most original. Apart from anything else, it would be unwise and a bit blind to ignore that because it’s an easy win to promote the game.
“We’ve got props coming through who, if we promote them appropriately, can make scrummaging sexy. Afo Fasogbon, who’s giving it large to established players who have done 1,000 times more than he has; you could look at it and think ‘cocky so-and-so’ or you could say ‘get after it, boy, crack on’. I love it. I think it’s great.
“We’ve got players coming through who we can really celebrate, so let’s make heroes out of these guys, because there isn’t another sport that does what they can do.”
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