All Blacks v Springboks: How Rassie Erasmus’ monstrous scrum compares with the all-time greats
The All Blacks managed to flip the French maxim of “no scrum, no win” on its head in the first test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series but the pasting they received up front – at least for the first hour in Johannesburg – only underlines how the Springbok scrum has become the most frightening weapon in test rugby.
That South Africa boast a fearsome front row is hardly a new development. The scrum was integral to their 2019 and 2023 World Cup victories, but in the past 12 months they have turned an advantage into a level of dominance which has rarely been seen before.
Go back to the autumn when the French scrum was taken to the cleaners in Paris before they inflicted the type of punishment on Ireland in Dublin which really should have been viewed after the watershed. Further parental guidance warnings should have been applied to this summer’s Nations Championship match against Wales, who were humiliatingly shoved back over the try-line on their own put-in.
In my mind, I cannot recall a front row that has consistently hit the all-conquering levels of this current Springbok iteration, so I enlisted the help of Phil Keith-Roach to put this team’s fear factor in historical context.
No man or woman understands more about the minutiae or machinations of the scrum than Keith-Roach, who wrote a 40,000-word thesis on scrummaging in the 1970s and his contemporary knowledge remains pin-sharp.
Keith-Roach, who was England’s scrum coach for their 2003 World Cup triumph, is unwilling to compare this Springbok front row directly with those of years past because each generation operated in their own unique conditions. A second row such as Colin “Pinetree” Meads was considered a giant in his era, but at 102kg,would seem skinny in today’s game. The laws have also evolved dramatically.
What Keith-Roach can say unequivocally is that the Springboks boast the scrum of the 2020s by quite a distance. The force they can generate, particularly through the back five of the pack, is clear for all to see, but what impresses Keith-Roach the most is how clean and controlled they are with their power.
“They are very, very disciplined,” Keith-Roach says. “You can ruin everything by getting slightly ahead of yourself. The South Africans very rarely do that because as powerful as they are, they are also very disciplined. It is a bit like heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury leaning on his opponents before punching him.
“When the referee calls ‘set’, South Africa will put all the weight onto their opponents but they are not aiming to hit through the mark. That takes a lot of control, not to go through and walk the opposition back because it is a free kick first time and a penalty second time.”
The list of Keith-Roach’s favourite scrums is a long one, going back to the 1950s French front row of Amédée “the Duke” Domenech, Jean de Gregorio, Alfred “the Rock” Roques. The 1970s were a particular highpoint when Keith-Roach was still in his pomp as a player.
This was when Fran Cotton, John Pullin and Stack Stevens led England to away victories in South Africa and New Zealand; the Pontypool-turned-Wales front row of Graham Price, Bobby Windsor and Charlie Faulkner were immortalised in song by Max Boyce; and the terrifying triumvirate of Gérard Cholley, Alain Paco and Robert Paparemborde were looming in the shadows for France.
Part of the reason Keith-Roach loves the current South African side is that they treat the scrum with the same reverence it was afforded in his heyday. “South Africa use the scrum in a very different way to most teams today,” Keith-Roach says. “Because they are so proud of it and because they are willing to keep the ball and go for a second shove, they really use their scrum as a weapon. They want to use the scrum to bully the opposition, drive them back, demoralise them. Winning a penalty is one thing, but they are also looking to physically and psychologically punish a team.”
Keith-Roach thinks it is “miraculous” that New Zealand managed to win the first test after the punishment they took in the scrum against the Springboks’ starting front row of Ox Nché, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw. South Africa won the scrum penalty count 5-1. Keith-Roach has been particularly impressed by the development of former Harlequin Louw, who ranks as the most destructive prop for penalties won and opposition scrum success in test rugby according to stats from Opta.
Yet the key to their whole operation is Nché, whom Keith-Roach rates as the greatest loosehead of his generation. “It is hard to find a tighthead in the world who can cope with him if they want a contest,” Keith-Roach says. “He has got the perfect dimensions as a loosehead. He is strong, he is compact and I love the way he just doesn’t mess around. You don’t see him chatting away. He binds up correctly and he is not looking to do anything illegal – he just wants to engage the other prop at a reasonable height and then make it a test of strength. He does not rely on any subterfuge; he just wants that pushing contest.”
According to Opta, Nché is one of just three players in world rugby to boast a 100% success rate on his own scrum. It is no coincidence that the one penalty that went against South Africa in the opening test, for wheeling, came after Nché had been replaced.
If South Africa’s scrum does have one weakness, it is that Keith-Roach believes they are overly reliant on Nché. “South Africa have fantastic depth and it just shows that they didn’t pick Thomas du Toit in the first test, but there’s not another player like Nché,” he says. “You hear a lot about the scrum being a collective operation and you can see the back five have a total buy-in but you need that cutting edge and Nché is the diamond tip of that tool.”