Jason Ryan likens All Blacks' scrum battle to '12 rounds of boxing'

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has likened the scrum battle against the Springboks to “12 rounds of boxing” after escaping Johannesburg with a Test victory.

Their 17-point triumph over the back-to-back World Champions had everything, from scrum penalties to cynical yellow cards; the game ebbed and flowed, culminating in an All Blacks victory in front 60-thousand at Ellis Park.

Those scrum penalties, an area the Springboks dominated for large parts of the contest, turned the result in the All Blacks’ favour late on, with Dave Rennie’s bench adding much-needed stability at scrum time.

The defining, and momentum-shifting play came in the 56th minute, when the All Blacks scrum won a crucial penalty deep inside their 22, relieving the pressure after spending a chunk of the previous ten minutes under the pump.

Ryan, speaking to Scotty & Izzy on Sport Nation NZ, described how he saw the scrum battle play out from up in the coaching box at Ellis Park.

“I think we probably learnt more as a pack in that 50 minutes than what we would have experienced in 100 trainings, and you wouldn’t experience that and what we had,” Ryan said on Sport Nation NZ.

“Look, we had 15 scrums on our ball, four scrums on their ball, and on average in the last five years we’ve had five scrums or six scrums on our ball, so that’s going to take its toll on the boys.

“And also we had Ethan de Groot who had a bit of a knee strain pretty early in the Test match, so he was sort of hanging off one leg, and then at altitude against the best in the world, which was a perfect storm really.

“But the boys adapted extremely well from the midst of the half-time, and we got the benefits. But yeah, we hung in there, and we were up against it, weren’t we? Far out.”

As to why the scrum may have struggled in the opening half, Ryan suggests it could have to do with the front row unit, rather than the scrum as a whole.

“I showed one clip at half time in the sheds, and we talked around the importance of being really connected together and scrummaging as a unit of three, because we thought the back five were doing a pretty good job getting some power through, but they needed to be really square and show some good pictures.

“We got reward for them stepping around on the left there, and then that sort of really was a moment in the Test match. In fact, that was probably the moment, and then we went to the maul and got a bit of advantage there and got back into the game.”

Ryan said he often compares the scrum battle to a 12-round boxing match, accepting his side may have lost more rounds than they won in the heavyweight battle in Johannesburg.

“I’ve always sort of used the analogy to the boys that scrummaging can be a little bit like 12 rounds of boxing. You might not win every round, and we probably lost eight last night.

“But we won a couple of big ones to get some points up, so yeah, satisfied. But more work to do.”