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Scrum wars begin again

Monday 07th July 2008

Mr. Woodcock and company: Legal?

It's an old chestnut, used by many a coach down the years, but it never seems to get worn out. South Africa coach Peter de Villiers on Monday decided to strike up a little verbal tussle by accusing the All Blacks of illegal scrummaging.

South Africa's scrum was comprehensively beaten for much of the opening Tri-Nations match on Saturday, with much criticism coming from the SA press over De Villiers' selection of props for the tour.

But De Villiers responded both to the beating and the critics by citing Tony Woodcock as the miscreant at scrum-time, occasionally hitting early and occasionally scrumming in or lifting.

"(They caused) walking around of all the scrums by using their loosehead prop to scrum in and at times when he didn't scrum in he just came up," he said at his press conference.

"That gave them the momentum, to come in around us.

"They were blown for that in the previous games and we were assured the referee would look at that. It didn't happen.

"They were blown up 21 times in the previous three games (against Ireland and two Tests against England) and they were allowed to play it in this one."

De Villiers, angry at the lack of authority in this area from Saturday's referee Stuart Dickinson, said he would instruct his team to rectify matters themselves rather than talking it through with the officials before the second clash in Dunedin on Saturday.

"We just have to become illegal sometimes too," de Villiers said.

"We will have to look after ourselves."

Scrums aside, De Villiers appeared happy to shoulder some of the blame for the defeat, saying that the tactics had been incorrect for the weather and situation, and, more poignantly, that his team had lost the match rather than the All Blacks winning it.

"There is a quite positiveness that we lost it rather than they won it," he said.

"We played it wrong in the (wet, windy) weather out there.

"New Zealand were very clinical on the floor. Maybe we were caught between the new laws (Experimental Law Variations) and the old laws.

"We are very positive that we can turn it around. We've identified a few areas needing improvement."

He did not confirm whether the scrum was one of them.