Neil de Kock: Wallabies' secret weapon at scrum time
The Wallabies have been lauded for their street smart tactics in back-to-back victories over the Springboks in Australia but, for me, it’s been their scrummaging displays which have caught the eye.
Since Petrus du Plessis joined the Wallaby coaching staff as scrum coach in late 2020, Australia’s set-piece has improved markedly. The former tighthead prop was born in South Africa but schooled in the dark arts of front row play in England. The 40-year-old is an astute student of the game when it comes to scrummaging and has been clever in terms of working with the available resources in Australia.
For a while now, scrummaging has been a perceived Wallaby weakness but Du Plessis is shifting the narrative as he continues to work with a group of props who boast an average age of 26.
Not too many people will know about Petrus as a player but when he came to Saracens in 2010, he was almost a saviour for us at the time because we had an injury crisis in the front row. At the beginning a number of people asked: “Where is this guy from?” However, he was absolutely outstanding, dug us out of many holes and played for the club until he left for London Irish in 2017.
Fast forward to 2021 and Du Plessis deserves credit for his work as Wallaby scrum coach. The men in gold and green knew that they would effectively be coming up against two Springbok packs over 80 minutes – owing to South Africa’s 6/2 bench split – and realised that they were going to have to find ways and means to get around South Africa’s famed Bomb Squad in order to at least be on par or perhaps even dominate the set-piece at times.
If it means that you have to push the letter of the law – as most modern professional teams do at the breakdown, with mauling and offside lines – it’s definitely a tactic that won’t be frowned upon unless it’s within the boundaries of what the law says.
However, another former teammate of mine, Rob Kempson, has been outspoken in terms of the Wallabies’ “illegal scrummaging.” Kempson flagged tighthead prop Taniela Tupou in particular for not having his hips parallel to the touchline and pointed to “the angle of his back” and how he “turned himself right to the other touchline.” I am definitely not going to disagree with Kempson when it comes to pointing out scrummaging tactics and the accompanying laws.
However, the irony is that if you asked the front rows of both Australia and South Africa the exact same questions post-match, I guarantee you that all six starting front rowers would have a different answer as to who dominated the set-piece, where it was dominated and where it went wrong at certain stages in the match. That is the beauty of scrummaging, which has always been a contentious aspect of the game.
As a former scrumhalf, I want to see the ball in and out of the scrum as quickly as possible and rugby being played. However, I respect the fact that the scrum set-piece is an incredible art form and plenty of time and effort goes into it at training and during a match situation. You want to be rewarded when you are dominant and are genuinely on top at scrum time. And when it doesn’t go your way, it’s incredibly frustrating as the Springboks can attest to against the Wallabies in Australia.
There are other parts of the oval game which are grey areas but the scrum is definitely still one of the most subjective aspects of rugby.
If we are talking about adding officials at scrum time to remedy the lottery which often ensues, how many times are we going to stop the game to discuss refereeing decisions? I agree that we can’t be reviewing every scrum to see what the correct call is but there could be value in bringing in an independent scrum official to focus solely on the set-piece and make a call into the referee’s ear at key moments in the match.
Making use of an independent scrum official for Test matches may be the way to go because if you had to put me in a game now, even as an ex-player and ask me to referee a scrum, it would be extremely difficult. The independent scrum official could be trialled at provincial level first before being moved to the international stage.
While contests on the ground, high tackles and going off your feet at ruck time are also areas that can have a material effect on a game, we need to find a solution because scrum rulings can change the outcome of a contest. It was evidenced by the final penalty awarded in the first Test match between Australia and South Africa on the Gold Coast which swung the result in the former’s favour.
It will be interesting to see how the Wallabies fare at scrum time over the next fortnight against the Pumas, who are famed for their Bajada technique, and what variations Du Plessis is set to introduce.
Following an 11-year career with Saracens, which saw him earn 264 caps, Neil de Kock now works in the rugby division at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport in South Africa. De Kock, who featured in 10 Test matches for the Springboks, provides RugbyPass with expert opinion and insight focusing on the southern hemisphere sides.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments