Boks target Aussie forwards

SYDNEY – The prospect of facing an inexperienced Australia pack in the Tri-Nations tomorrow has given South Africa’s giant forwards renewed confidence they can settle their scrum problems.

Despite boasting one of the biggest packs in world rugby, the Springbok scrum has struggled for consistency this season and often incurred the wrath of referees.Their attempts to ruffle their opponents with a massive hit at the point of engagement has met with mixed success and last week they were heavily penalised during their 32-25 win over the Australians in Perth.The Springboks lodged a complaint with the International Rugby Board about the performance of New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence but it fell on deaf ears so they have spent the past week ironing out their own problems.’It’s very technical, some days you get it right,’ lock Victor Matfield told reporters yesterday.’We just look back a few weeks against the British and Irish Lions where the one week we dominated and the next week they dominated.’South Africa assistant coach Dick Muir was confident they had worked out the issues and would not have any problems against the Australians in Brisbane this Saturday.The Wallabies have made wholesale changes to their pack and Muri hopes to exploit that, with English referee Wayne Barnes in charge this time.’It’s something that we have worked on this week to be better in the scrums on Saturday,’ Muir said.’We’re very confident that it is an area he (Barnes) will manage very carefully. He would have done his homework and he would realise the strength of the South African pack.’ While the South African scrum has struggled at times this season, there has been no such problems with the lineout.Matfield said the Springboks planned to target the new Wallabies, who will have just four lineout jumpers this week after backrower Richard Brown was dumped for David Pocock.’Hopefully we can put them under pressure and that can be a good area for us,’ Matfield said.’We believe they will go with shorter lineouts that will help them with three jumpers.’ – Nampa-Reuters