Austin Healey: rugby union must speed up or it will die of boredom At the first scrum, and despite the two packs being in the vicinity of where the scrum would take place, it took the two packs 58 seconds to bind up. That is before they went through the process of engaging. The second scrum took 124 seconds even to engage. So, there are more than three minutes of playing time lost. We simply have to find a way of speeding up that process because the stoppages are too long. The TMOs are getting used too often and there are too many breaks in play. It needs to start flowing more. Otherwise it will look a little bit more like rugby league and we do not want that. Here is where the two things fit together. Because the players are, these days, running around far less than they used to, they are getting bigger and stronger. Their training is modified towards that. Ten years ago, the game used to be partially anaerobic and partially aerobic. So, depending upon your position, you would either run around a lot or you would be a high intensity sprinter. The modern game dictates that everyone is anaerobic. The fitness guys at all the clubs, regions, provinces and at international level too, understand the game as well as anyone and therefore they modify the training to reflect what goes on, on the field. If you are a second row who is only running 2½ miles a game, but is averaging 25 big impacts, they will prepare you accordingly. What I am suggesting is that we make the game more aerobic and if we achieve that, the players will shrink in size and the impact hits will be less like a car crash. Hence less injuries. Solution one: Let us take that scrum I mentioned at Gloucester on Friday night. Instead of allowing the clock to run and run, the referee will allow the side with the put-in either 15 or 20 seconds to bind up and get in position. That is a sure fire way of cutting down on the stoppages. The reason I am saying this is because not only will we start to see less injuries, because the number of weighted impacts in the game will be reduced, but the game will be faster for those spectators who, at present, are going through various stages of hypothermia because there is nothing to cheer about. After all, as supporters we all stop when they stop. Referees need to take the lead here and tell sides to speed things up. People tell me all the time that the game in 2003 was quicker than it is now. They are dead right. It was. We used to have a ploy, that we would kick to the line-out and Clive Woodward would want the hooker to be there asap, ready to go. Now, It kept us going forward. What happens now, is that a penalty is awarded, everyone takes a big gasp of air and after both packs stand still for about 30 seconds, the fly-half walks over, kicks to touch and his forwards stroll to the line before the call is made. Then the ball comes in. It takes an age. Solution two: I would like to see a referee given the power to say that the team awarded the penalty have 30 seconds from the moment the penalty is given to the moment they have to restart the game. If you do not achieve that inside the time limit, the penalty will be reversed. Whilst it may seem trivial to argue about 20 seconds here and there, they all add up and an extra five minutes of rugby could be very entertaining, and tiring! No need to worry about England injuries Because they are all long-term injuries, England's list of absentees could be a blessing in disguise. If this had happened 12 months down the line, we would all have thought "what a nightmare." But two years is a long time in rugby, as we saw in 2003. In 2002 we did OK in the Six Nations, but it was not until the following year that the likes of Josh Lewsey and Lewis Moody came to the fore. It is next year when we want our big guns fit, so let us not be too worried that these guys are away from the game and effectively recharging their batteries in readiness for 2015. I think we should worry about it this time next year, if our key players are injured then. At present, let us just accept that our two main players, Alex Corbisiero and Manu Tuilagi, might be injured now, but will come back fresh. Austin Healey is proud to be an ambassador for the new Jeep Grand Cherokee