John Smit says South Africa’s Super Rugby exit has contributed to the All Blacks’ scrum struggles.
The 2007 World Cup-winning Springbok captain believes the different club competitions the two nations now play in have contributed to South Africa developing an advantage at the set-piece.
“We get tested in the Champions Cup against some of the best scrums, we get tested in the URC, so the scrum and the kicking game has remained of massive importance in the competitions that we’re playing,” Smit said on the I Love Rugby podcast.
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By contrast, Smit believes Super Rugby’s emphasis on attacking rugby means New Zealand forwards are not subjected to the same weekly set-piece examination.
“Super Rugby is still such an exciting tournament to win but there’s not a huge emphasis on kicking tactics and set-piece; it’s more about playing the All Black way.
“There are not a huge amount of teams that are going to really scare you from a scrum point of view and that’s a difficult one to fix.
“I think the All Blacks have got the personnel but scrumming is like a UFC fighter.
“You can train in the gym as much as you want, but if you don’t put enough time in the ring and you don’t scrum every week, and you don’t get tested by hard opposition, it’s very difficult to understand what the level is.”
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Smit saw evidence of that difference during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, which the Boks won 3-1, and was surprised by New Zealand’s reluctance to engage South Africa at the set-piece.
“Every ball they had was channel one, they didn’t want to give the Boks too many scrum feeds, which they were good at,” he said.
Smit says the Boks have developed “a ferocious scrum” through a combination of personnel, technique and hard work.
“It has been building and getting better and better, and they put a lot of work into it.
“Truth be told, we’ve got Ox [Nché] on the one side, we’ve got Malcolm [Marx] in the middle and then we’ve got Wilco Louw at 140-odd kgs; you add a little bit of work and technique to that, it gets hard to stop.”
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Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The post Smit: All Blacks ‘fighters’ need time in the ring appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
John Smit says South Africa’s Super Rugby exit has contributed to the All Blacks’ scrum struggles.
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