THE SCRUM DOCTOR, Peter Bracken, will be showcasing his Scrum Coaching sessions alongside the innovative Live Scrum Machine in Ulster during the first week in October and he’s keen for any Schools or Clubs interested in availing of this services to get in touch now. 

The ex Ireland squad member learned his scrummaging technique at the coalface in his stints with Connacht, Wasps and Bristol Rugby, amongst others, and since hanging up his boots the Elite IRFU qualified scrum coach, mentor and tutor has developed a cutting-edge scrum coaching session that brings immediate results.

We at The Front Row Union have direct experience of Peter’s coaching during his time as forwards coach with Ireland Women during their highly successful 2013 Grand Slam season and the subsequent 2014 Women’s World Cup where Ireland Women achieved their highest ever placing in that competition. 

When we heard that he was running independant scrum coaching sessions as THE SCRUM DOCTOR we immediately got him on board at Ulster Women, Cooke Women and with our local club last season and the results were impressive with all three turning an area of weakness into an undoubted strength. We’ve already had repeat sessions at Cooke this season and he’ll be catching up with Ulster Women again soon. 

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Since then THE SCRUM DOCTOR has added the hugely impressive Live Scrum Machine by Silver Fern to his repertoire and this will be available for the coaching sessions in October. 

Powered by pneumatic rams with a patented rail system the Live Scrum gives the most realistic representation of opposed scrummaging that there is out there at an affordable price. Peter is just back from a tour of the UK where he successfully demonstrated it’s capabilities to Saracens, Exeter Chiefs, Newport Gwent Dragons, Cardiff Blues and Bristol Rugby, among others. 

Speaking to Peter about the Live Scum’s effectiveness he stated: 

Quite simply it’s the most realistic scrum machine I’ve ever encountered and is an ideal training tool for any any team that want’s to improve their scrum. It’s inherent safety features make it suitable for schools and it’s capabilities challenge professional teams; and any side in between will benefit. 

It’s designed to systematically push against you, it can raise or lower the scrum in real time and can move left or right and can drive from the tighthead or loose head sides. It’s as near to live scrummaging as you can get. 

The machine can pulse it’s output and, if it senses the power dropping off, it will push back harder which trains the team not to ease off. It’s a fantastic training tool, provides invaluable feedback for coaches, and as one Exeter prop told me when we were demonstrating it, “It’s doing exactly what the opposition did to me last week!” 

The Scrum Doctor with Live Scrum schedule for Ulster in the first week of October is as follows.

The Scrum Doctor will be back up in Ulster several times over the next few months so if you would like to arrange a live coaching session for your school or club or come along to one of the above sessions for a demonstration please contact THE SCRUM DOCTOR directly on +353 86 056 6806 or email peter@the-scrum-doctor.com

The Scrum Doctor also offers a one day (or two night) Scruminar, suitable for larger groups of coaches, which will help build a scrum culture and scrum legacy within an entire club or school. Contact The Scrum Doctor now for further details or visit THE SCRUM DOCTOR website.