It is a thing of sheer beauty for any prop to be a part of – scrumming the opposition off the ball to win back possession.
The Springboks were on the receiving end of that humiliating sequence against Argentina, but came full circle when they annihilated the All Blacks set-piece in Wellington 10 days ago.
Powerhouse rookie tighthead Marcel van der Merwe led the way, destroying New Zealand replacement Joe Moody to give the Boks one final chance of snatching a famous victory at the Westpac Stadium, but it was just not to be as the South Africans went down 14-10.
But Bok pride had been restored as the scrum was now an attacking weapon once more for Heyneke Meyer’s team, and scrum coach Pieter de Villiers wants to see more of that aggression and excellent technique in Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies at Newlands.
The Boks endured two heart-wrenching defeats in Australia and New Zealand, but close enough is not good enough, and they will know that nothing more than victories over those same opponents in the next fortnight will be acceptable.
But the Boks looked in good spirits as they ran out for their first training session of the week at the impressive Cape Town Stadium yesterday on a warm spring day, and having fixed the scrum, there seems to be a spring in their step as well for the last two games of the Championship.
Steady improvement against Australia in Perth was followed by an even stronger display in the New Zealand game, and the whole trip was underlined by that massive scrum in the second-last minute in Wellington.
“Scrummaging is a lot about attitude and mindset, and (that late scrum in Wellington) was a big moment for the team. It certainly created a possibility for points, which is fantastic. The players who came off the bench did really well there with a very powerful scrum, and we’d like to build on that,” the 69-cap former French tighthead prop De Villiers said yesterday.
“Jannie du Plessis is still doing very well for us and Marcel van der Merwe has done well too, and we spoke about that scrum where he made a difference for us at the end of the game. We will miss Frans Malherbe due to injury as he has really proved to be someone who can walk the path in future with the team.
“A guy like Marcel is new to the squad and has shown very good power with his scrummaging. Those things are things to take forward and it gave the players confidence again because they have been scrummaging well for two years. It’s not two games of difficulty in the scrums that makes them a bad scrum. It was very good for their confidence and we will take it forward from there.”
De Villiers said that the Bok management had identified some technical deficiencies from the Argentina games, such as “sinking the hips to the front” and being wary of how the opposition sometimes line up shoulder to shoulder instead of ear to ear, which is what the law requires.
Such “tricks” in the scrums have long been associated with the Wallabies, who seldom possess really big props and use “clever” tactics to gain parity or sometimes even win penalties from the referees.
Experienced Welshman Nigel Owens will blow the whistle at Newlands, though, and is unlikely to be caught out by any illegal manoeuvres. But De Villiers wants the likes of Tendai Mtawarira and Jannie du Plessis to keep on sorting out problems themselves instead of leaving it up to the referee to make a decision, which was the case against Argentina.
“It is up to us to be within the laws to make things easier for the referee as well, because when you are under pressure and you are not within the laws, it makes calls very difficult, and you move into grey areas that are very difficult to manage for referees,” he said.
“So we try to find answers ourselves first before relying on the referee because you never know how the calls might go. There are many things to look at and the referee can’t see everything all at once. I think the more we dominate to the front, with all three front-rowers, the more we can actually put pressure on the referee to make an easy call.
“Australia are quite solid and have got a very good engagement, they seem to set their scrum to the front very well too, so we definitely expect a strong challenge there.
“As much as we are happy with the way things went in Perth, they actually fared quite nicely against Argentina, so there will be a strong reaction from their side. But we think that if we can do the same things that we did in Perth, we’ll get a good set-piece base.
“If our system fires properly, we should get the upperhand. The new scrum laws are a lot about what you do as a unit together and how we can generate power as a unit. So we won’t put too much emphasis on one specific individual, but rather that we get our overall strategy correct.”
Japan-based Schalk Burger and JP Pietersen, who were unavailable for the overseas leg, took a full part in training yesterday although they are both likely to play off the bench.
Star Western Province No 8 Nizaam Carr was invited to train with the Boks yesterday as well as part of a process to familiarise himself with the team set-up, with his provincial teammate Seabelo Senatla also attending but unable to practice due to an ankle injury.
Saru announced yesterday that EP Kings loosehead prop Lizo Gqoboka will also join up with the Boks on Wednesday for a training session. - Cape Times