A lot has been said about the scrum battle in the second test, and a few words from Dave Rennie afterwards that caused frustration and a few expletives from Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.
But a lot of that was based on fact, not fiction, and as Erasmus said on Monday in naming his team, All Black coach Rennie can have an opinion but he can’t say it is fact.
Looking back at the second test, it shows a clear abdication by referee Angus Gardner in the scrums at best, and at worst shows that the Australian referee, who the Boks have had problems with before, certainly decided only to referee one side in the contest.
So let’s go through the scrums one by one, and see how he reacted, and why there is so much frustration in the Bok camp about it.
The background is clear. The Boks have been the most dominant scrum in the world for a few years now. They have dominated international and club rugby stats in the competitions they play in and never has there been an accusation that they have been illegal - until Rennie came to the fore.
After his initial forays into claims that South Africa are slowing the game down, Rennie seized on one scrum in the 55th minute of the first test, where the Boks were penalised for walking around.
Afterwards Erasmus admitted in that scrum they had got it wrong, but what followed seems to be a co-ordinated strike that seems to have influenced Gardner to focus only on one side.
The Australian ref - especially when the more experienced front row of Ox Nche and Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw was on - decided they were at fault - despite the Boks trying to point out that the All Blacks were shifting before the scrum sequence was taking place.
Gardner was having none of it, talking to the World Player of the year as if he was a schoolchild and negating the Boks’ advantage in the scrum. The fact the Boks won the contest without their scrum is a testament to how well they played, but it did leave a bad taste afterwards that willingly or not, a referee could be influenced in this way.
THE FIRST SCRUMS COLLAPSES AREN’T PUNISHED
The first scrum was on the All Blacks ball in the ninth minute and it immediately folded and collapsed. The third was on All Blacks ball in the 29th minute. Same scrum, same result of the entire All Black pack collapsing and Gardner playing on.
While it is known that Super Rugby encourages referees not to have scrums, if a scrum collapses, countless times we have seen referees award penalties at the scrums when it collapses early to set a standard. Gardener set his own standard, showing that collapses would not be ruled on, and play would continue.
THE PROBLEMS BEGAN WHEN OX AND MARX CAME ON
The Boks had won a penalty in the 35th minute and made the tactical change to bring on Ox Nche and Malcolm Marx five metres from the goal-line. The scrum was set-up and Gardner decided to concentrate on Marx, World Player of the year and lay down the law.
“New faces, heel on the floor, patient on the call. Guys don’t step around, you stay square,” the referee said.
While that may go down to most as just the normal welcome referees give new front rows, it echoed the exact words that Rennie had said on the Thursday, that the Boks step around and don’t stay square.
Marx didn’t argue, and the Bok scrum powered to a penalty. They decided to scrum again - again the All Black pack collapsed and Gardner did nothing with the Boks playing on. Belatedly his arm went out and gave advantage from an assistant referee call.
The Boks play pressured the All Blacks into a hole, which Siya Kolisi went over from.
THE ALL BLACKS SHIFTED AT HALF TIME
Now what is important to understand is the arguments being used here. For one - the All Blacks believe the Boks are shifting left, and therefore driving in on their tighthead, or “stepping around” as they say.
The brake foot is the hooker’s leading, split-stance foot positioned down the center of the scrum tunnel during the "Crouch" and "Bind" phases of the engagement sequence.
It acts as a central stabilising anchor that stops the hooker's pack from sliding forward prematurely and forces the front row to bear their own weight rather than leaning their heads onto opposing shoulders.
By maintaining this staggered stance through the initial setup, the hooker avoids what the lawmakers call axial loading—the dangerous compressive weight and pressure forced through the cervical spine and neck when the full weight of an eight-man pack leans forward before impact.
The law also requires the hooker to keep this brake foot planted until the referee calls "Set," at which point it is withdrawn just as the packs come together, clearing the channel to strike for the ball. If a hooker fails to maintain a brake foot during the bind, the pack loses its primary structural check, drastically increasing the risk of premature engagement, weight-bearing collapse, and penalties.
On the field it is clear the Boks are not happy in the next sequences, and it is because they feel the All Blacks - once the ref has given the line where the brake foot needs to go from the attacking scrum, seem to shift slightly left. This means the two packs can’t line-up straight and forces the Boks to move right, where the ref suddenly accuses them of “stepping around”.
The slight change is sometimes difficult to pick up, especially as the referee is focusing on the brake foot of the attacking side, and therefore defending sides can use it as a ploy to negate a stronger scrum from getting that initial hit on.
THE CRUCIAL RESET SCRUMS
Consider the scrums from the 43rd minutes. In setting up the scrum, Ox Nche loudly complains that the All Blacks have shifted. He points it out to the referee and Malcolm Marx shakes his head and tries to tell the referee, who responds with “Let’s go”, clearly ignoring his pleas.
Then before the scrum is set, Gardner walks forward and stops the scrum, walking up to Marx and telling him: “Stand up, don’t shift your foot. Excuse me? Excuse me? I said, and you agreed, ‘don’t shift your foot’.”
Why the referee decided to scold Marx there is unclear, but it is clear the Boks felt he was ignoring the shift of the All Black pack after the brake foot position was given. The scrum forms again and Gardner calls “crouch”, but before he can call “set”, the All Blacks stand up.
This clearly irritates him as he calls both front rows to chat. Again, pointing to the Bok players and not the All Black players he says “I don’t want to have games again. I spoke to everyone in the first half about games. I don’t want games. Feet stay on the floor, heads either side.”
In frustration, Ox Nche walks onto the spot where brake foot needs to form, and physically draws a line, trying to show where the All Blacks need to be. The scrum forms and collapses immediately and is a reset. The Boks are more than frustrated. Andre Esterhuizen gestures to the assistant referee, but to no avail.
At the setup to the next scrum, Gardner leans in again, telling the Boks to “not walk around, stay square.” Clearly he has decided who is at fault. The scrum collapses again. Gardner again says it will be a reset. The Boks are clearly frustrated. Marx is gesturing, Ruan Nortje is shaking his head.
The next scrum brings it to a head, literally. The All Blacks shift ever so slightly, meaning the Boks cannot position themselves in between the heads. Ox Nche tries to shift Tyrell Lomax head on head and Gardner calls a free kick, penalising the Boks. “Head battle, clear shift of the head,” Gardner calls and the Boks scrum is negated. “Number 17 (Nche), moving his head in.”
That frustration - along with the comments by Rennie afterwards, caused Rassie to explode.
ERASMUS OUTBURST
Shortly after Rennie said they would contact World Rugby again about the Boks walking around, Rassie exploded.
“It’s the first time in history that these people are talking about us walking around. So why would we want to start walking around now?” Erasmus told journalists.
“The first six scrums in New Zealand’s half, they had every single one collapsed. And it was reset, reset, reset, reset. So why is it only on their ball that the scrums collapse every single time?
“So don’t come with that nonsense and say we’re walking around, and try and put things out in the media.”
“If I start to put things out … their last lineout was skew – I’m not going to moan my arse off about that. If you just want to start moaning about stuff like that, then they’re under pressure.
“Because last week we didn’t moan after there was clear head contact a lot of the time. And today in the first 40 minutes there were four head contacts, and nothing was done about it, and then Lood de Jager gets the first one [yellow card].”
“The moment we start moaning … and if you’re taking a clip of what I said at the end, it’s going to be a sensational headline. But please don’t do it – put the whole thing where I’m answering it.
“Don’t try and convince the people through the media, because that was what happened in the first week trying to convince people we’re slowing the game down.
“They tried to convince the people in the media, and we’re not going to take it.”
“If the referees get caught up by that, then there’s obviously a plan to get that message out. And then we don’t want to stay quiet and just say, ‘Oh, you’re right, we’re walking around’.
“We’re not f**king walking around. We scrum through. We’ve never, ever, ever been accused of walking around, so I don’t understand.”
FINAL WHISTLE
The refereeing also made SuperSport’s Final Whistle presents Side Entry discussion on the game afterwards, where former Springbok coach Nick Mallett and former Bok captain Victor Matfield were livid at the way Gardner reffed the scrums.
“He’s 100 per cent correct; no one has ever talked to us about our loosehead walking around – that’s never, ever been a problem. Ox Nche has always gone straight through the tight end here and the guy has to go somewhere,” he said.
“The tighthead is going backwards and either he collapses and if he goes backwards, and Ox goes forwards, he has got to follow the tighthead. It’s very simple: if your loosehead’s shoulders and hips are parallel to the touchline as you start the scrum and he shoves and their scrum starts crumbling, he has to follow the tighthead. So it’s where he starts scrummaging. He always starts straight…”
Mallett added, “I’m 100 per cent with Rassie on this; we dominate every team at scrum time because we’ve got a better front row and our second front row is better than most teams’ first front row. So it’s hard to legislate against us.”
Matfield highlighted the fact the Boks were the only ones targeted by Gardner in the scrum battle.
“He’s frustrated because, as he said before the series, coaches could have a half-hour meeting with a referee. Now you can’t do it. You have to sit together [both coaches],” he explained.
“And they definitely didn’t have that. If you look at the game, that’s why Rassie was so frustrated. The referee talked a lot to the front rows, but he was always talking to us; talking to us about why our hooker is moving.
‘REF WAS COACHED’
“So there was definitely communication to the ref in the week, to say this is what the Springboks do. If you look at the Springboks’ scrum in the last four years, a guy like Frans Malherbe was straight. We’re doing it a little bit differently at the moment. In the old days, we liked the long scrums.
“Now, because so many teams are doing that channel-one team ball against us, especially on their ball, we try to get that shove as the ball comes in. So sometimes, if you get them quickly and they go back quickly, then of course you will go on the angle, but only after you went forward. I mean, there’s no one going straighter than Ox.”
Mallett questioned the headmaster's approach given the Boks pedigree on the field.
“Well, probably the most experienced loosehead and hooker in the world and the most respected; Marx was player of the year, wasn’t he, last year? So I mean, he’s talking to two guys who’ve done their job and done their job incredibly well. So why is he suddenly talking to them about one?” he questioned.
“That’s a referee being coached before a game. So where did they have the time to get him to talk about that?
“There is a second clip as well, where they moved the mark, and he’s just talking to South Africa, and Malcolm is like, ‘Where do you want us to be? I don’t understand’. There was definitely a focus.”
“He said, ‘Don’t play games with me’; it’s very surprising. I mean, he obviously came in with a preconceived notion that we have a tactic in the scrum to move to the right or whatever it is, and that starts with Malcolm Marx moving his foot,” the former coach remarked.
“He wasn’t looking at anything else except for Malcolm Marx’s foot, and when he had it out, he picked it up and put it down, but it didn’t appear to me that he moved it a long way, and he immediately went.”
But the Boks still won despite Gardner’s abdication and now head into the third test with a bit of momentum, but the scrum talk won’t die down.