Last weekend South Africa dominated and embarrassed the Irish rugby team which highlighted the Irish weaknesses. Things unraveled so quickly with the Irish scrum that you actually felt sorry for them. Many pundits this week came out complaining that the SA team has an unfair dominance which is so absurd and the scrum is a major part of the game. 18 penalties, 4 yellow cards and a red card which could have been far worse as the Irish were playing spoiling rugby/cheating due to being dominated. The referee must have felt sorry for the Irish as there could have been many more penalties given.
The Irish were pushed off their own ball and the players had no answer to the power the SA team had. Scrummaging is a set play and is something that needs to be practiced daily until it becomes a fine art. The skills required are built over months and months of team work. The art of doing a double dip meaning there is a second shove coming and that will demolish all teams. The Irish front row is or was regarded as very good before this last weekend and now that reputation has been shattered.
The problem with other international rugby teams and will continue to be a problem is how they train. Teams use a scrummaging machine which has padding and that padding does not offer the same resistance as another human pack would. The padding is set at a height and does not drop down and go lower.
The SA team trains against another pack which is the second best pack in the world and why the SA team has so much depth. They train on this set piece for hours at a time so much so that their shoulders are bleeding. The pressure and forces on the body being in a scrum is not something you can explain and have to experience this to understand it more. This team trains at a higher intensity with live scrums than they experience on match days.
When the SA team train they go lower and lower getting as close to the ground as possible which they call taking your opponent to the harbor. The other teams cannot take the force and pressure at these extreme angles because they have not trained for this and why they buckle.
Penalty try should have been another yellow card but the Irish already had 3 players sin binned so how could a team survive losing a 4th player. When you only have 15 players and would be down to just 11 what choice does the referee have but to be lenient. Ireland only stayed in the game due to the referee not punishing them properly.
Of the 16 scrums that took place SA won 12 penalties from Ireland collapsing and going backwards. Depending on where you are on the field this weapon can move you up the field by 40 meters at a time thus dominating field position. If you are good at something you are going to capitalize on this and the scary part for other teams is they cannot compete at this standard they are now facing. If you train for these required skill sets you can dominate world rugby. The work that goes into this special art is so special and technical that you do not learn this quickly even with players who have been professionals for years.
This year alone the SA team has used 54 players and most of those players would have been blooding new forwards. This weekend versus Wales the SA team has made 8 changes from last weekend and they have 7 forwards on the bench to replace the players during the game. The changes are forced due to the international window being closed so the top players return to their local clubs. This second string team will demolish Wales this weekend and is not in doubt. Just a pity there is no match against England this year and will have to wait until June next year to see how they face up to the scrum challenge.
The scrim culture in SA is not to win the ball but to pulverize and demolish the opposition through tenderizing the opponent by wearing them down. Once the opponents have been weakened the replacements come on and the fresh legs finish the job. Teams have 2 years to train and get this right before the next World Cup or they will not be able to compete.