Analysis: The All Blacks won't be concerned by scrum reverse last week but must get referee on side. The bigger battle will be when the ball goes to ground, writes Patrick McKendry.
The Springboks – desperate for the win in Wellington that will allow them to retain the Freedom Cup and No.1 world ranking – may point to their demolition of New Zealand’s scrum midway through the second half of the Test last week as they launched their comeback as a reason for confidence.
The All Blacks may be happy if they do.
Firstly, rarely has an All Blacks scrum been so thoroughly beaten.
It came after giant tighthead prop Wilco Louw, almost as wide as he is tall, slotted into the front row as a replacement. The Boks’ pack united in an almighty shove to push the All Blacks off their ball for an attack which finished in a try for Malcolm Marx. But it was more of an aberration than a trend.
The All Blacks blamed a combination of factors for backheeling in the set piece, including tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax’s feet slipping, and "interpretations", not expanded on but probably related to an early push by the Springboks before the ball was put in by halfback Finlay Christie.
Such a tactic by the visitors could have been penalised with a free-kick but referee Karl Dickson thought otherwise.
Regardless, the next day assistant coach Jason Ryan said such an occurrence was a “never-again” moment for the All Blacks and that comment was repeated by hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho yesterday.
"That’s just not our standard," Taukei’aho said. "We’ve obviously worked on it this whole week. We’ll be ready for it and if moment happens again we’ll take it with both hands. I think Jase touched on it at the start of the week – it’s never going to happen again.
"[The Springboks] rely on it to get momentum in the game but I back our boys. Our forward pack is going to be up for the challenge."
Perhaps more important was the way the All Blacks edged the Boks in the lineout – there are generally two or three times as many of those in a Test as scrums but, more particularly, at the breakdown.
It’s on the ground where the All Blacks dictated terms through their better aggression, technique (including lower body height), and commitment.
Head coach Scott Robertson has stressed the need for improvement this week and he was right to because the Boks, who pride themselves on their physicality and combative nature, are unlikely to be as poor in this area at Sky Stadium tomorrow night.
If anything truly summed up their performance – apart from their players slipping on the turf and dropping the ball with little pressure on them – it was the final breakdown of the Test.
Chasing the game with the clock ticking into the 82nd minute, wing Cheslin Kolbe was out under pressure due to a loose pass. Another Ardie Savea-inspired counter ruck then allowed the All Blacks to win back the ball and Damian McKenzie gratefully kicked it dead high up into Eden Park’s east stand.
Part of the All Blacks’ strategy for the Cake Tin will be to continue that dominance and quickly find common ground with Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli, an official who has not exactly been a good luck charm for the All Blacks recently.
Amashukeli was in charge of the All Blacks’ one-point defeat to France in Paris last November. Four months before that was New Zealand’s 16-15 win over England in Dunedin, Robertson’s first Test as head coach.
In 2022, Amashukeli also had the whistle for the All Blacks’ loss to Argentina in Christchurch – the first time the Pumas beat New Zealand.
The All Blacks’ scrum has otherwise been good this year – including during the opening Test against France in Dunedin, where they used it to win a crucial penalty late in the game.
It has been a focus this week but not necessarily a concern. However, they will be aiming for early dominance or at least parity to paint the right pictures for Amashukeli.
More pressing will be the need for accuracy on the counterattack. Erasmus named a far more attacking backline this week in the search for a spark and there will likely be more opportunities in this area – to the potential relief of the crowd and general viewing public hoping for a good spectacle to go with the inevitable intensity.
We know the Boks can scrummage and kick, but can they, or just as importantly, dare they play with the width and ambition that cost them so badly in their first Rugby Championship defeat of the season to the Wallabies in Johannesburg a month ago?
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