Ex Keo
Adriaan Strauss believes the Springbok pack will simply need to adjust on a poor Murrayfeld pitch on Sunday, reports JON CARDINELLI in Edinburgh.
When players and coaches speak of northern hemisphere conditions, they're not just alluding to driving rain and powerful winds that blow box kicks backwards. The soft fields of the north often inhibit the flow of the game, and in some instances the pitch can deteriorate to the point where scrummaging becomes difficult. (Please bear these things in mind oaks as the conditions are very foreign to the Boks. I would think ou maaikie, snapster and Bok logic will roast Meyer if we do not play an expansive all out attack game. Hence my cautioning of the oaks to bear the conditions in mind and save us all from numerous unecessary bleats)
The Boks struggled at this set piece in the last Test against Wales, and while front-rankers Bismarck du Plessis and Frans Malherbe admitted as much afterwards, they also expressed their disgust with the state of the Millennium Stadium pitch.
The bad news for the Boks is that they could face similar conditions in Edinburgh this Sunday. They won't have the benefit of playing the Test indoors, as was the case in Cardiff, but they will have to contend with a Murrayfield pitch that's just as prone to crumbling.
Heyneke Meyer has made two changes to the front row for this game, and one in the second row. It will take time for the Bok scrum to settle, and the soft underfoot conditions will present a further challenge.
Bakkies Botha joked on Wednesday that the Bok forwards would simply respond by wearing longer studs. Strauss, who is one of the changes in the front row, agreed that the Boks wouldn't look for excuses.
It's not good enough that two Test teams should be forced to adapt to such an extent, but as Strauss said, the Boks don't have a choice.
'Because of that, the set-ups at the scrum will have to be a bit higher, and that brings with it a number of challenges,' he explained. 'When your set-up is lower, you're in a much stronger position. When you're higher, you will need to work that much harder.'
The Boks have placed an emphasis on their scrummaging in training this past week. They need to improve after the performance against Wales, and they want to use this set piece as a weapon against a Scotland team that is missing some key players. Euan Murray, for one, is unavailable because of his religious beliefs.
Once that new combination settles and adjusts to the conditions, Strauss is confident that the scrum can set the platform that will allow the Boks' tactical kickers or hard-running backs to dominate .
'I think we've done well under the new laws this year,' the Bok vice-captain said. 'Credit to [scrum coach] Pieter de Villiers, we started working on the new laws quite a while before they were implemented. It's something you need to keep working at, though, and I feel we've done well.
'It's just as much mental as it is physical. Especially after contact. With the old laws, it was all about the hit. With the hit being neutralised a bit, you need to work hard as a pack.'
