Nick Mallett believes the All Blacks were fortunate that Australian referee Angus Gardner largely neutralised the Springboks’ scrum dominance in Cape Town.
The scrum has become a major talking point in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, with All Blacks coach Dave Rennie raising concerns with World Rugby after the first Test about the Boks allegedly “walking around” at the set-piece.
The debate intensified after Saturday’s second Test, which the Boks won 33-26 to level the four-match series at 1-1.
Erasmus sprung a surprise shortly before kick-off by reversing his front-row combinations, with Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit getting the starting roles and Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw held back for impact.
The Bok coach said afterwards that the original selection had been made with wet conditions in mind, but the dry weather prompted him to rethink how he wanted to deploy his front-rowers.
MORE: Cape weather rained on Erasmus’ plans
Speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, Mallett said the gamble paid off.
“It was classic Rassie. I think he really thinks about every single thing.
“It worked beautifully. It really did. I thought our Bomb Squad made a big difference. The guys who came on all contributed.”
However, Mallett felt the Boks could have got even more reward at scrum time had Gardner taken a different approach.
“I just really felt that Angus Gardner didn’t want to have to adjudicate who was dominant in that area of the game.
“He wanted it to be a set-piece that was just a restart in the game. If a team managed to get the ball to the No 8, even if that front row just pancaked and went to ground – which is illegal, you’ve got to stay on your feet – he said, ‘Play away.’
“I think the All Blacks were lucky with that. I think they were able to probably avoid three or four penalties in that area of the game.”
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Mallett acknowledged that New Zealand’s starting front row had held its own against the lighter Bok combination of Steenekamp, Fourie and Du Toit.
“In that first half they scrummed well. There was a lot of parity there. They didn’t really get on top of us, but we didn’t get on top of them either.
“I think that set the tone for Gardner. He thought, ‘OK, fantastic, now it’s a game where I won’t have to take some really tough decisions here.’”
That changed when Nché and Marx entered the contest in the 35th minute.
“When they came on, there was a real bloody difference in terms of momentum,” said Mallett.
“He gave two penalties quickly, but the second one was called by the touch judge because I heard him say, ‘Can you give me the picture? Who was it who went down?’ He wanted to know why there was a penalty there and why the assistant referee had called it from his side.
“At the end of the game, [Gardner] just wanted that scrum – the team that put it in, get the ball away and let’s move on.
“It’ll be interesting to see if that continues with the Georgian referee [Nika Amashukeli] at FNB [Stadium].
“Certainly, it took away what has always been a real weapon of ours. There were a number of scrums in that game where we could double-shove and we could have gone, but we weren’t given the reward.”
RASSIE: We not f**king walking around!
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
