Springboks out to lift the scrum

THE Springboks will be working around the clock in the build-up week to Saturday’s World Cup final against England at Stade de France on sorting out the scrumming deficiencies that threaten to derail their title aspirations.

Good though most aspects of the 37-13 win over Argentina in the semi-final were, and there is no denying the talent in Jake White’s team, the Boks know that they could be in big trouble against England in Saturday’s final if they don’t sort out their scrumming, which was again exposed in the Pumas match. The scrum was the one area where the Boks were upstaged in the key Pool A match against England just over a month ago.Although they got away with it then, the Bok management is aware of the different challenge that might be posed this time now that Jonny Wilkinson is back at flyhalf for England.Phil Vickery, the experienced England captain, also didn’t start against the Boks, and is now back to lead the side, so the England scrum could be even stronger than it was in September, when Andy Sheridan subjected BJ Botha, now back in South Africa injured, to a torrid time in the set-pieces.The Bok scrum has shown no meaningful improvement since the first England game if you consider that Fiji, who the Boks beat in the quarter-finals, don’t profess to be a scrumming nation and were destroyed by a mediocre Welsh scrum a week prior to the Marseille quarter-final clash.Sunday though was particularly disturbing, with CJ van der Linde spending much of the match pinned in the scrums to Os du Randt, and with the Bok scrum taking palpable steps backwards to their opponents.As a consequence, Danie Rossouw often received the ball under pressure, as did scrum-half Fourie du Preez.The Boks need a strong scrum platform if they are to effectively launch their strike runners, and it is a tribute to the counter-attacking abilities of the back three, as well as the skill and speed with which turn-over ball was put to use against Argentina, that the Boks have been able to keep winning so comfortably.Bok forward coach Gert Smal has admitted that the scrumming is a massive concern and that this aspect of the game would be placed in sharp focus this week.”It is a big concern and it is an area that we are going to have to look at before the final,” said Smal, who rates the England scrum as the second best in the world behind New Zealand.”We have not had much time since the game to go through the videos, so at this stage I cannot say definitively what went wrong.But we have scheduled a session with all the forwards where the scrumming will be put under the microscope and we will work extra hard this week on rectifying the short-comings.”If the Boks can get to the bottom of their scrumming shortfall, and can find a remedy, it may be that the match against Argentina came at just the right time.Going up and failing against a top scrumming unit has brought some perspective and reminded the Boks that this is an area of concern that needs to be worked on.SuperSport ZoneThe scrum was the one area where the Boks were upstaged in the key Pool A match against England just over a month ago.Although they got away with it then, the Bok management is aware of the different challenge that might be posed this time now that Jonny Wilkinson is back at flyhalf for England.Phil Vickery, the experienced England captain, also didn’t start against the Boks, and is now back to lead the side, so the England scrum could be even stronger than it was in September, when Andy Sheridan subjected BJ Botha, now back in South Africa injured, to a torrid time in the set-pieces.The Bok scrum has shown no meaningful improvement since the first England game if you consider that Fiji, who the Boks beat in the quarter-finals, don’t profess to be a scrumming nation and were destroyed by a mediocre Welsh scrum a week prior to the Marseille quarter-final clash.Sunday though was particularly disturbing, with CJ van der Linde spending much of the match pinned in the scrums to Os du Randt, and with the Bok scrum taking palpable steps backwards to their opponents.As a consequence, Danie Rossouw often received the ball under pressure, as did scrum-half Fourie du Preez.The Boks need a strong scrum platform if they are to effectively launch their strike runners, and it is a tribute to the counter-attacking abilities of the back three, as well as the skill and speed with which turn-over ball was put to use against Argentina, that the Boks have been able to keep winning so comfortably.Bok forward coach Gert Smal has admitted that the scrumming is a massive concern and that this aspect of the game would be placed in sharp focus this week.”It is a big concern and it is an area that we are going to have to look at before the final,” said Smal, who rates the England scrum as the second best in the world behind New Zealand.”We have not had much time since the game to go through the videos, so at this stage I cannot say definitively what went wrong.But we have scheduled a session with all the forwards where the scrumming will be put under the microscope and we will work extra hard this week on rectifying the short-comings.”If the Boks can get to the bottom of their scrumming shortfall, and can find a remedy, it may be that the match against Argentina came at just the right time.Going up and failing against a top scrumming unit has brought some perspective and reminded the Boks that this is an area of concern that needs to be worked on.SuperSport Zone