Dave Rennie's 12-word verdict on the Springbok scrum in Soweto

Agreed, but I do wonder how seriously DR and Co are taking set piece parity.

He’s selecting the lightest, shortest back row in recent memory and expecting them to compete with an opposing 8 who are all monsters. In fact, we can match them for size in the front 5, but the overall weight of the AB pack has gone from within coowee of the Boks at about 930 to under 900 in the last test.

He’s making the front row the fall guys, but I wonder how De Groot Aumua and Lomax would go with the Bok 5 behind them?

In the light of what happened in Soweto I’d really like DR and Barnesy to abandon this idea that we’re going to run them off their feet - that worked! - and select a pack that in terms of height and heft actually stands a chance of competing at scrum and line-out:

De Groot Aumua Lomax Holland Darry Parker Lakai and Blackadder.

Vai’i is cooked, give him a rest and have Parker pack down at 8 on defensive scrums.

Clearly, you know nothing about scrumming and your biased take is just embarrassing. You do not mention that the entire All Blames pack was at an angle.

Don’t just look at one frame, go watch the replay and see if Love was ever completely behind the line. The problem is that with the All Blames there are only offside lines for the opposition and never for them. This type of arrogance can be seen in the podcast rant of Mark “Watto” Watson. “They should respect us; we are the All Blacks”

Same thing with Love’s yellow card. Where does he see an offside??

Yeah how does that happen in the modern game - and where did the call come from. The ball was literally in flight and Love still behind the line.

The ref always has an influence. Ultimately he didn’t influence the result. The Boks were the better team. They once again had the upper hand in the scrums, and the lineouts and the kicking game. The Boks arguably matched the AB in attacking play, and the rucks/ mauls seemed pretty even.

We can argue about the Boks angles, but the slow-mo footage shows the ABs front row actually tried a genius, highly technical micro-ambush to destabilize the Bok scrum before the ball even came in.

Here is how they tried to sabotage the hit—and why it spectacularly blew up in their faces-

Just before the hit, the Lomax intentionally dropped his right shoulder below the line.

The goal was to trick Ox Nche into reaching down and ruining his straight spine profile so he'd collapse on engagement.

Amua hooker shifted his weight early to close the gap, trying to block the Boks from executing their famous left-sided squeeze.

Milliseconds before the referee said Set, the ABs micro-charged forward, trying to catch the Boks off-balance while they were still planting their feet.

So, why did it fail?

One word - Leverage.

Ox Nche has a center of gravity so low he’s practically subterranean.

ABs shoulder-drop didn't work because Ox was already lower than the trap they set.

The Boks completely absorbed the micro-charge, locked their feet, and because the ABs movements left them slightly unbalanced, Ox snapped his shoulder right under the tighthead's chest.

Result was the ABs scrum geometry turned into a pretzel, the pack went into full backpedal, and the ref had no choice but to award a penalty try.

A masterclass in the dark arts from both sides but only 1 winer when somebody like Ox Nche is packing down.

😂😅😅

Delete the app and use your browser for a few weeks then try again.

And that is what should happen. Scrum infringements are technical only, they should go short arm to speed the game up.

I hope you’re not a Springbok supporter, for their sake.

Yeah certainly in the scrums they were waiving the white flag. Happy the scrums have gone well but I thought the lineout would be a huge strength for the ABs. Credit to SB lineout prep and Eden return to form.

You think Rassie would be happy with one scrum?

As a Bok fan I have to ask…where are the other 6 words??