'A lot of weight': All Blacks prop hails growing scrum after Scotland Test

The All Blacks‘ scrum turned up the heat on Scotland at Murrayfield, delivering the most dominant display of the year just two months after being overpowered during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test series. Tighthead prop Fletcher Newell says the performance was a great reward for the effort being put in behind the scenes.

New Zealand’s scrum has provided a steady platform for the team’s attack throughout the first year under Dave Rennie, but they’ve rarely looked to hold the ball in to win a penalty at the set-piece battle instead of quickly getting the ball to the backline.

However, at Murrayfield, the Kiwi pack recognised its advantage in the second half and exploited it. Consecutive scrums saw the Scottish props penalised, contributing to a 19-0 second-half scoreline. Three Scotland props ended the game with penalties to their names, with Zander Fagerson pinged twice.

Newell, who played 62 minutes of the Test, credited the reserves for challenging the top-stringers at training during the week.

“I think we’ve been building really nicely,” he told reporters post-match. “Obviously, working through the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, I feel like we’ve gone from strength to strength with our scrum, and we’ve been putting in a lot of work in that.

“Credit to the boys that set us up throughout the week, the boys that aren’t playing – jeez, we’ve got so many good props in our squad, and anyone could be out there, and to be able to scrum against them, train against them, it makes our job easier when we go out on the field on Saturday.”

It’s not just the front row stocks in fine health for New Zealand, with the recent return of Scott Barrett, who missed the opening nine months of the year after an injury and a non-playing sabbatical, fortifying the second row unit.

Newell said that between the experience gained by playing South Africa four weeks in a row and the extra muscle Barrett has brought to the pack, the Kiwi scrum is growing nicely.

“I think it just probably took a lot of learning and problem-solving. Obviously, having Scott Barrett back adds a lot of weight in the engine room, and he’s a highly experienced scrummager, and he loves it. So, I think it’s just the work we’ve been doing in training, putting a lot of emphasis on it, because, as All Blacks, we need to pride ourselves on our scrum, and it was awesome to be able to do that tonight.”

Newell finished the contest with 13 tackles from 14 attempts and didn’t concede a single penalty. The same could not be said for several of his teammates, with New Zealand’s indiscipline seeing them go down to 13 men in the 32nd minute.

“We faced a lot of adversity out there, especially in that first half,” the prop reflected. “We were put under a lot of pressure, a couple of yellow cards, and yeah, it was really difficult to stop their momentum when they got going forward.

“But really proud of how the boys dug deeper and came out on the right side of that one. A couple of areas we’re going to have to tidy up: obviously, they scored a couple of maul tries and definitely our discipline. But yeah, overall pretty happy given the circumstances.”