Boorowa put on the world stage by the Enforcer scrum machine

Initially built in 1997 by born and bred Boorowa local, Matthew Corkhill, Corkhills Engineering, the Enforcer is now a familiar piece of equipment on rugby training fields the world over.

What started as a machine for the local rugby club more than two decades ago has grown to an average of two orders a week for new machines, with a team of more than a dozen people now employed on construction.

Matthew said the first machine was built for the Boorowa Rugby Club, but once word got out, there was an enquiry from the Wests Rugby Club in Canberra.

"An old hooker from Wests came to me and said 'look, can you build a machine for us?" he said.

"I said look, you can buy them out of New Zealand, they're called the Silver Fern."

However, he insisted on buying Australian.

"I want you to add a seat and transport wheels so we can move it around the pitch during training," the hooker said.

"So I can sit on the machine and look at the pack while they scrummage."

To this day, these features are still distinguishing features of the machine.

After hearing the West's were using the Enforcer, the Brumbies also started training with the machine .

Former rugby prop and later forwards coach of the ACT Brumbies, Ewen McKenzie approached Michael about the Enforcer and offered to trial it with the team while helping with its development.

"That year two props for the Brumbies were the Eastwood props," Matthew said.

"Eastwood borrowed the machine and went on to win the Shute Shield Premiership that year in Sydney and one of the tries scored was a pushover try; they'd been using my machine.

"The Brumbies over the next couple of years were very successful.

"The coaching staff then went from the Brumbies to the Wallabies so my machine went straight from Boorowa, the West's, the Brumbies, then the Wallabies.

"Pretty much that was right at the top and it's sort of never looked back to this day."

Through the years the scrum machine has stayed somewhat the same with safety of the players being front of mind.

Matthew said at the point of engagement the force hitting the machine can be upwards of 1400 kilograms.

"So when you have two packs engaging, you're getting up to three tonne of force across six men in the front row," he said.

"You know it's extremely hard to stay stable during the scrummaging process with that amount of pressure being exerted through the front row."

"The other advantage with the machine is it's a much smaller machine than the older dinosaurs of the past. If you don't use it properly at misbehaves, so it actually teaches you to scrummage."

He said the machine was so small and light, at just 550 kilograms and two metres square, whereas its predecessors weighed around 1500kg and larger.

Because of that huge mass of the earlier scrum machines, it was difficult to know where the pack's energy was being directed as a scrum packed down.

"Whereas with mine, it misbehaves if you're not scrummaging correctly which in return forces the front row to push through the machine and keep their core engaged," he said.

The Enforcer Pro Model has a twin brake roller system that is controlled while scrummaging by the operator from the seat on the machine.

This system can assist or resist the wheel and stall even the strongest scrum if required.

Matthew got his idea for his design initially from his own experience as a front rower for the local and representative team as a younger player.

"I've used all sorts of machines over the years, mostly built by a club member to a club budget. I contribute some of my ailments to poorly designed scrum machines and at the time saw definite room for improvement."

The Enforcer operation has been one of the original sponsors for the Brumbies, since 1997 and has had a partnership with the Wallabies for more than 20 years.

The company exchanges and services the equipment every 12 months, to ensure the Australian sides have the latest updates and changes in accordance with the ever changing rules of rugby and scrummaging, all while maintaining consistency across the board.

"Partnerships can be a great thing when money is not involved, things always seem to go pretty seamlessly," Michael said.

Part of the contract with the Wallabies, however, was also for the company to supply visiting nations with machines for which to train.

"As a consequence we export the Enforcer product globally", Matthew said.

"There wouldn't have been a side in the last World Cup that didn't use our gear, or hasn't used it at some stage during their rugby career, including South Africa. They bought a machine from us a number of years ago.

"So it's just going from strength to strength."

Michael said there were six different models of the scrum machine catering for different skill sets and environments.

"You start with the 4x4, which attaches to a vehicle out of the tow bar. This is very handy for clubs that share a rugby oval," he said.

He said if a club didn't space for storage, they could remove it from the ute towbar and then take it home after training.

The top end of the offering was the Astromax model, which the Scottish national side purchased last year, designed for artificial or manicured surfaces.

"They had a dominant scrum in the World Cup and they love it," Matthew said.

"I found I was getting more requests for a machine to use on Astro surfaces. It wasn't until an old farmer friend of mine asked me to have a look at a canola front he was having some issues with, that's when concept came to light.

"I looked at the conveyor belt system and thought that's it."

The engineering business has also had several requests to customise the machine, with some of the best ideas from people that know the machine, but have no engineering background. Their ideas were usually uncomplicated and straight to the point.

Matthew said at the end of each season, he discusses with the coaches what changes might be needed, partly because the game also evolves, such as the way the props bind and new techniques.

The dealings are also direct with the team in Boorowa, with limited distributors in between, one exception being Japan, but otherwise the clubs deal direct.

Matthew said it was a rural-based business that not only employed locals, but didn't rely on the season to keep ticking over.

He said so long as people wanted to get out and play or watch the game, there'd be demand for his machines.