New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie has revealed that he has raised concerns over South Africa’s scrummaging tactics ahead of the second Test between the two teams in Cape Town.
The All Blacks went 1-0 up in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series with a 33-16 win at Ellis Park on Saturday, but struggled to combat the Springboks’ power at the set-piece.
The tourists were largely on the back foot throughout, though did win a pivotal penalty at a second-half scrum in the shadow of their own posts to help turn momentum with the hosts penalised for failing to drive straight.
And Rennie has spoken to the match officials about South Africa’s scrum set-up as he seeks improvements from his side.
“I think scrum-wise, obviously we’ve spoken with World Rugby around a couple of issues from our point of view,” Rennie revealed. “And so we think, scrum-wise, we’ll be a lot better, and that was a massive in for them last week. They are elements we need to be better at.
“The expectation is our scrum will be a lot better. We think if they’re forced to scrum square, not allowed to step sideways and walk around us, then we’ll be able to stay in front of that and be able to get footy going off that.”
Rennie has made a handful of changes to his side, with George Bower stepping in for the injured Ethan de Groot on the loosehead.
De Groot suffered a concussion in a clash of heads with lock Josh Lord, who is also ruled out – Tupou Vaa’i moves from the blindside to the second row, with Simon Parker promoted to the starting side. Leroy Carter, meanwhile, is preferred to Josh Moorby on the wing.
The second of four Tests between the southern hemisphere rivals will now be overseen by Australian referee Angus Gardner.
Georgia’s Nika Amashukeli had been due to take charge but is unwell, and will instead referee the third Test in Johannesburg next weekend.
The experienced Gardner will keep a close eye on the scrum, with Springboks prop Thomas du Toit insisting his side will keep things clean.
“I can’t really make any comments on what Dave Rennie has spoken to World Rugby about, but we try and stay within the laws of the game as much as we can and as much as we perceive it,” Du Toit said.
“There are always two sides to the coin. One person sees one thing, one person sees another thing. So one person’s walking around as the other person’s straight. Something happens on the other side of the scrum as well.
“The ref can only blow what he sees in front of him. So much credit has to go to the referees and the way that they see these things. They try and see everything and it must be so difficult to get that part right.”
