"Use It!" - Clarification Required Please

Some new rules are a little confusing for us former players and whilst I like the 5 second rule it remains a little subjective IMO. Anyways my conundrum is that over the past few weeks I have watched teams put the ball into their own scrum (legally); get a decent drive on so they are gradually moving forwards and just as they are getting some decent momentum the ref shouts "Use It" - Surely it should not be up to him to tell them to use it when they have a decent drive going. Can someone please clarify this for me 'cos I find it a little frustrating for all teams.

I thought the 5 second rule was only for rucks - can't see anything on the IRB website about it applying to scrums

It depends on whether the Referee sees it as static. Once again open to interpretation.

Yes, the scrum thing is interesting to me too and I was going to comment on the same thing.

What about when the referee shouts "use it!" often a couple of times. If the opposition scrum then crumbles, can the referee legitimately award a penalty to the feeding side? given that he has already told them to use it (sometimes more than once) and they haven't? Or should he award a free kick, or scrum to the defending team who's scrum was overwhelmed on the basis that he told the attacking side to use the ball and they didn't?

I think you were watching a Wallabies match when the ref said 'Useless' to the Wallaby front row. He then penalised them using his taunt as justification but actually it was the Argentine front row who collapsed the scrum but as usual the ref was clueless and just went by reputation.

Great post. I too believe refs are just making it up on the fly when it comes to a scrum going forward.

Just like they do when ALL players are off their feet and they still call it a Ruck because the ball hasn't come back from the last pair of feet. Even though they are lying on the floor. As far as I'm concerned if they ain't on their feet then it AIN'T a Ruck.