'How they have done it for years and years': Ex-All Black captain Read breaks down Springbok scrum

Ex-All Black captain Kieran Read has offered a detailed breakdown of the Springboks scrum which he claims has scrummed on an angle for “years and years”.

The former No.8 played South Africa 22 times over his international career, winning 16 times, with first hand knowledge of how the Springboks operate their scrum.

His last game against the Springboks was the 2019 Rugby World Cup pool game, won 23-13 by New Zealand, which featured a number of the current day forwards for South Africa.

Read explained that the tendency of South Africa’s scrum has always been to scrum left and their tactic of isolating the tighthead for a “one-on-one” contest with the powerful Ox Nche.

“Ox is most dominant, and looseheads are always most dominant,” Read said on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby ANZ podcast.

“It’s always going to look like it’s going that way [left].

“But South Africa’s always got a very clever way of shearing in with their tighthead, which allows them to move basically that way, left, and then around you, and I’m sure the All Blacks were expecting it.

“They didn’t deal with it in that first Test, but this morning [in the second Test] they dealt with it.

“You get our hooker to do the right job on on their tighthead, and it actually helps our tighthead to square scrums straight. You could look at every scrum and say there’s things going on.

“I think from a New Zealand point of view, we’re pretty straight scrummers. South Africans they scrum their own way, and I think that’s slightly on an angle. Purely, that’s how they have done it for years and years. And they might think they’re going straight, but it’s not illegal what they do potentially, because you can’t really pick it up, but the outcome, maybe, at the end of it.”

Asked for a detail explanation of the Springboks tactics, Read explained that they want to “de-power” the opposition hooker.

He said that the All Blacks did their homework and found a way to negate that in the second Test.

“They’re pushing across to the left,” he said.

“So their tighthead and their hooker pushing across to the left. So what they’re trying to do is basically de-power our hooker, who’s who’s kind of the connection point between our scrum and basically trying to make sure he can’t push, so they’re squeezing him.

“And by going there [at the hooker], our tighthead is kind of left a little bit hung out to dry, if they get that right, you got a bloke like Ox who can do what he does.

“It’s a tactic that has been used. I think they are still using that, and you got to say from the All Blacks point of view, they’ve reviewed last week and and did a pretty good job, and even got a little bit of reward at some stages on their own ball.”

Referee Angus Gardner was strict policing the mark which led to a number of discussions and resets with the Springboks front row.

In the 42nd minute Ox Nche began playing head games with All Blacks tighthead Tyrel Lomax, which ultimately led to Nche being pinged for a free kick New Zealand’s way.

Read said it would have been frustrating to the average viewer but fascinating to watch with an understanding of what the tactics are. He credited the All Blacks with taking away one of South Africa’s strengths.

“What was frustrating around it was, for some reason, it was the head-on head [niggle] or the break foot or something wasn’t quite right,” he said.

“So the All Blacks were like, “No, we’re not going to go down and get set if the Springboks are, you know, already on their angle”.

“You don’t want to be sitting there watching too much of those resets, but a it’s a fascinating watch if you have a little bit of understanding around what they’re trying to achieve, because yeah, I thought we did a great job at trying to stop one of their big strengths.”