A tale of nine scrums...the facts...the analysis

There were nine scrums. Three Bargie feeds...all of which they won. Six Bok feeds one of which we won, and one of which we got a penalty. Here they are;

Scrum1 ...Bok feed...Minute 5.38

The Boks get some forward movement on the loosehead side...Herrera the tighthead pops but there is no penalty. Reset, the scrum wheels through our tighthead. Nobody down but Jannie penalized...presumably for a knee.

Scrum 2....Bok feed....Minute 15.28

Walsh tells Jannie after one scrum "you are the man we are both looking at". The scrum goes forward but Steenkamp turns inside and Bismarck and Jannie pop. Contrary to scrum 1, Walsh awards a Bargie penalty.

Scrum 3....Bargie feed....Minute17.54

Boks blown for an early shove which comes from Steenkamp's side.

Scrum 4....Bok feed....Minute 18.44

Boks get shove from Steenkamps side...reset twice. Third time penalty against Ayerza for boring in. In fact he was both hinging and then boring in. Hinging stretched out the Bok front row after which they were vulnerable to a sudden inward shove.

Scrum 5....Bok feed....Minute 42.00

Jannie and Ayerza collapse. Reset. Bargies shove early ....you can see the Boks going backwards with Pienaar still down delivering the ball. It fooled Walsh and Jannie lifted out of the retreating scrum. Penalty to Bargies.

Scrum 6...Bargie feed.....Minute 49.20

Jannie and Gurthro are gone. The Boks tighthead side is fragmented and the Bargies get an ideal scrum position to open up play...but the Bargies get a poor ball exit. Still it is good enough and they get a try straight off the scrum as our loosies are dragged blindside by the wheel and the Bargies have an overlap.

Scrum 7...Boks feed.....Minute 60.40

Malherbe straight down once....Malherbe asks Coetzee to brace him, but straight down twice, straight down a third time and he is very lucky to escape a penalty. But the fourth time is like last week, he is lifted, twisted inside and driven into the deck. Malherbe penalized and the Bargies narrowly miss a next phase drop.

Scrum 8....Boks feed....Minute 70.50

Danger man Herrera is now off after being subbed at minute 67. Ayerza continues and Malherbe is down for a 4th and 5th time in a row.....there is no clear dominance though and Walsh lets the scrum go with the front rows on their knees.

Scrum 9....Argentina feed...Minute 80.09

Ayerza is also gone....and so is the injured Malherbe after 3 scrums. Jannie is back on and this is the big one. In extra time on the Boks 10 m line in the middle of the field. A penalty could be fatal. But the Boks scrum well and splinter the Bargie's who get slow ball, and a pass is sent into touch. Game over.

So what do we conclude? Obviously Argentina hurt us in this set piece throughout the game. To me it was very apparent the Bargie locks were set lower  throughout. They also coordinated their shove brilliantly....the Boks were 8 men scrumming, the Bargies were one muscle pulsing.

That said I think Walsh missed a Bargie early shove which set up their most dominant scrum 5. Also he penalized Herrera once for angling in....he missed some bridging and there was probably more angling.

The Bargies approach the scrums like the whole game....we were clearly not prepared and Jannie/Gurthro were slow to respond. The Beast did better, but against an Ayerza with 50 minutes in his legs. By contrast Malherbe could have been penalized in every scrum. Including resets he kept his feet once in seven attempts.

So where do we go from here. On the loosehead side Steenkamp was not terrible, but failed to add the scrumming grunt which was his supposed calling card. Maybe a call up for Thomas du Toit might be warranted for the home tests.

Jannie had a bad day But against a prop who was on the edge of boring in....he has had similar bad days against Aussie Robinson and found an answer. He remains our best bet because Malherbe can't keep his feet and is hurt in any case. And frankly on the tighthead side the cupboard is bare.

Mostly we need to be more prepared. We were surprised by Bargie tactics and we shouldn't have been. The Power locks added nothing at scrum time, they seemed too high relative to the Bargies. And we need our own proactive tactics for unsettling scrums. I hope this was a learning experience.

Beeno: ya can't have it both ways.

One minute you say the Argies must have been using illegal scrum tactics (but they weren't penalised for some reason, lol). Then when you talk about the Argies playing the Mighty All Blacks you skeptically say that the Argies will be penalised (because of bent refs of course), lol

If you focus on what the Bargies are doing....what makes them so effective. Here are my observations:

1) Their locks set lower than the Boks, which would seem to suggest the power is directed up and they have a better chance of getting under our scrum.

2) Ayerza the loosehead sometimes scrums inwards. But not in every scrum and he does it well. It's not as obvious as some. Nonetheless it's crucial ....inward pressure on the tighthead is the most effective tactic in scrumminng.

3) The Argies turn on the shove at an instant....it's like a muscle twitching. 

4) But they turn on the power at different times. Once it was at the feed. The next time it was a sudden late shove when we were relaxing.

5) They got away with a superbly timed early scrum, where they "pulsed" right at or before the feed. Their communication is excellent.

So they vary everything.....pressure points, timing, degree of effort....in every scrum. B ut when they do go for it, it's one mighty pulse that fractures the opponent. We are light years behind....just reacting to Bargie tactics. We must learn from this.