Bok coach Rassie Erasmus flashed with anger when he was informed that All Blacks coach Dave Rennie was unhappy with the Bok scrumming.
The Springboks earned one scrum penalty against the All Blacks during their 33-26 second Test victory at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday, which was five fewer than a week earlier.
Bok coach Rassie Erasmus’s demeanour switched from calmly happy to furious when a reporter mentioned that New Zealand coach Dave Rennie was still unhappy with the Boks’ technique soon after the Boks victory.
Rennie has spent much time in public questioning whether the Boks “walk around” in the scrum, thus gaining an advantage.
After his side’s defeat, in which scrums were not a factor thanks to the All Blacks’ self-declared non-engagement pact and referee Angus Gardner’s unwillingness to punish them, Rennie banged the same drum.
“The scrums were better tonight, I think [referee] Angus [Gardner] was pretty strong around setting a mark and then trying to keep the hookers in the same sort of spacing and if the Springboks moved across further left then he stopped them,” Rennie said.
“We’ll give a bit of feedback around that. That’s still a bit of an issue for us because they’re able to walk around and go straight through our tighthead.
“So, a couple of little technical things that we’ll share again, but I thought in the end the scrums, both teams were able to play off them and so I think Angus did a reasonable job there.”
Was the Bok scrum so much worse in the second Test? Or were the All Blacks allowed to back away and not engage in the set piece by referee Gardner.
It’s an opaque world where a combined 1,800kg comes together but the Boks have had the most dominant scrum in the sport for seven years.
At one stage a scrum collapsed four times and each time Gardner allowed a reset. It took nearly four minutes for that late-first-half scrum sequence to play out.
In Test one of the Greatest Rugby Rivalry at Ellis Park, the Boks battered the All Blacks, winning six penalties as New Zealand’s scrum disintegrated.
Despite that, the All Blacks, to their great credit, found a way to win.
Erasmus was not having it when he heard Rennie’s comments.
“It’s the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around,” Erasmus said.
“Why would we all of a sudden start walking around in this? You know, the first six scrums for New Zealand had every single one collapsed and it was reset, reset, reset, reset.
“So why is it only on their ball that the scrum collapsed every single time? I don’t come with that nonsense and saying that we’re walking around and you try and put those things out in the media.
“If I’m starting to put things out, the last lineout was skew and we contested it. I’m not going to moan my arse off about that.
“Last week we didn’t moan after there were clear head contacts a lot of times. And today in the first 40 minutes there were four head contacts. And nothing was done about it. And then Lood [de Jager] gets a yellow card for the first one [head contact].
“If they are moaning about stuff like that, then they are under pressure.
“Don’t try and convince the people through the media, because that was what happened in the first week,” Erasmus said.
“So if the referees get caught up by that, then there’s obviously a plan to get that message out, and then we’re not going to stay quiet and just say, ‘Yeah, you’re right, we’re walking around’.
“We’re not f***ing walking around. We’re scrumming through.
“So, you know, we’ve never ever, ever been accused of walking around, so I don’t understand it.”
Once he was done, Erasmus apologised for his wording but not the content. There is obviously a narrative around the Bok scrum, which the All Blacks are doing their best to counter off the field, and Erasmus has taken his gloves off in response.
Where Rennie could’ve had a go at Erasmus was over the Boks’ late change to the starting team.
An hour before kick-off in Cape Town, Erasmus swapped his starting front row of Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw, with the reserve front row of Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit.
That was in addition to naming Cheslin Kolbe in the starting line-up as a replacement for Kurt-Lee Arendse on Friday.
Under World Cup rules the Boks would face a fine or worse for changing the team in the 48 hours before kick-off. It’s unclear what the Greatest Rivalry tournament agreement states, but it is a tactic that goes against the spirit of the game.
“We thought it was going to be wet and that’s why we picked the front row,” Erasmus explained.
“The whole week the forecast was going to be wet and we thought we would need a heavier front row for the first half of the game.
“We were always going to use two front rows, but then closer to the game it came, the weather said it’s going to be dry, and then we felt our front row would be a little bit lighter, it would be better on the dry field.”
Erasmus admitted that Kolbe, who scored 18 points from the kicking tee, should’ve been bracketed with Arendse when he originally named his team on 24 August.
Rennie seemed unfazed by the Boks’ changes.
“It doesn’t worry me at all. They named their team on Monday, it had no bearing on the team that we named. And so, no drama from my perspective,” Rennie said.
“I guess when you name a team on Monday, there’s a chance that there’s going to be changes. To be fair, we took minimal notice of the team on Monday, because there’s a chance that it’s going to be different on Saturday.” DM
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